Questioning
by numina
Summary: We've seen it all from Roxas' point of view. But what about from Namine's? [Namixas].
1. Draw

**A/N:** It's me again, with another Namixas. This time, I'm making a chaptered thing, but the chapters are much more shorter than what I usually write. I guess I _really_ had to take a break from writing angsty stories, so I decided to write something like _Alive_. This happens pre-CoM.

**Disclaimer:** As much as I'd like to own Kingdom Hearts, like the millions of its adoring fans everywhere, I own only a _copy_ of the game. -sighs-

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g**

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N a m i _x a s_

_-In a world that was **never **supposed to be_

_non_exist_ent ques**tions**_

_**asked by a **nonexistent** heart**_

_**des**erve non**exist**ent _ans_wers_-

_by a nonexistent counter_**part**_-_

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_Plip._

Naminé jerked her head up and shot the angriest glare she could muster at the blonde boy sitting across the table.

"You know, it'd be _so_ much more scary," Roxas said loudly, scrunching up another piece of paper," if _you_ actually _felt_ angry."

"Shut it, Ro_xie_," she snapped, throwing the ball of torn sketchpad back at him. "Don't you have a meeting or something to go to?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "If I did, I wouldn't be here, would I?"

She sighed. Why did all Nobodies have to be so _sarcastic_? Pursing her lips in the most annoyed expression she could remember, she turned her attention back to the piece of white paper in front of her.

It already had the makings of a staircase--a _white_ one, much like that spiral staircase Demyx had always pestered Xemnas to build. Why exactly did Demyx want a spiral one? She had never bothered to ask, and likely wasn't going to anytime soon, since the water-loving Nobody was still getting over getting his mullet burned horribly by Axel.

Why was she drawing a staircase? She had no plan to be Organization XIII's resident architect, thank you very much. She just had this weird urge to draw a staircase. With all these Shadows over it. Strange.

But then again, when was being a Nobody anything but strange?

_Plip._

"Roxas," she growled, without looking up from the paper ,"stop annoying me."

"I have a question."

"What?" The back of her neck prickled, meaning that right now, Roxas was giving her the Look. She sighed and glanced up at him.

_Plip_.

A ball of paper hit her squarely between the eyes.

"_That_ is the stupidest question I have ever had the misfortune to come across," she scowled, shooting Roxas another glare. Her fingers itched to throw her pencil at him.

He grinned. "Now that I have your utmost attention---" he leant forward. "How come you can draw so well?"

She stared at him.

Roxas' brows furrowed once again. "Hey, stop staring at me, _I'm _the one asking, you know."

Naminé raised an eyebrow and shrugged, moving her pencil smoothly against the paper. "Practice?"

"You've only been here for what---a year? You can't learn to draw _that_ good _that_ fast."

She put her pencil down and stared him straight in the eye. "I'm desperate. Drawing is the only time when I catch glimpses of my memories, and my sketches are all I have, Roxas. You, at least, have something to tell you who _your_ Other is. Me? I don't have anything. Anything at all for me to remember."

He shifted uncomfortably, lowering his eyes, obviously surprised at her seriousness. "Oh. Okay."

She bowed her head and continued to sketch in silence, hoping that it was enough to conceal her smile.

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There. Not much of a plot, but I wanted to get it out of my system. It's _such_ a joy to be updating three stories now, wouldn't it? Hah. I'd really appreciate reviews. Flamers are welcome.


	2. Mirror

**A/N:** I dunno what possessed me to write this fanfic... but still, I _have_ to write this or I'll go crazy... dump all the happiness out of my system before continuing with Trinity...Pre-CoM.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts _now_, but I _will_ someday!

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**Q u e s t i o n i n g **

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**-**_Mirror, **mirror**, on the wall,_

_who's _**the**_ most clue**less** of them _**all**_?-_

Naminé stared.

Why the _hell_ would Xemnas give her _the_ tackiest mirror mankind (or Nobody-kind, whatever kind-in-general) has ever known?

It was round, twelve inches across, with a metallic border that looked a lot like it had been under water for the last ten thousand years (and if you looked closely, _ew_, there was still worm-guts-thingies in one of the cracks). It was a bit cracked on one side. It even clashed with her room's white, white decor.

But _that_ wasn't what she was staring at right now.

This was the first time in since she had come to existence that she had actually _seen_ herself.

The first thought that came to mind was 'I _really_ need to get more sunlight' (a feat easier said than done, since the World That Never Was never really _had_ a sun). Her skin was so pale that she could swear she _glowed_.

She squinted at herself. Looked from the right angle, she could pass as a ghost.

"Hey."

Naminé screamed, her nonexistent heart fluttering, her fingers curled into claws, ready to maim. She whirled around into a faceful of laughing Roxas.

"_Never _ever scare me like that," she growled indignantly.

"A--"

"_No,_ don't tell me I can't even feel afraid, because I _was_."

Roxas grinned, his deep blue eyes crinkling mishcheviously. "You're the one talking to yourself; _I_ should be the one whose scared in being a room alone with a _psycho_."

"Oh, shut up." Huffing, she turned to face her (tacky, yes, but served the purpose) mirror, and began scrutinizing her big, blue, and ever bluer eyes, wondering if her eyes were really _that_ blue.

"Oooh... I see you already got Marluxia's old mirror..."

"Huh?" Her blonde eyebrows furrowed together, much like the same way Roxas furrowed his. "This was Marly's mirror?"

He shrugged and laced his fingers behind his head. "He stole it from Atlantica, and kinda decided it didn't really fit in his majorly _pink_ room, so--"

"Wait. Marluxia actually _uses_ mirrors?"

"He's got a dozen of them," Roxas rolled his eyes. "He's such a _girl_, jeez, the way he hogs the bathroom in the morning washing his _pink_ hair..."

Naminé had taken to pinching her eyebrows together; she decided they were all over the place. Maybe she should borrow Larxene's tweezers later. "Uhhuh..."

"Speaking of hair...Why is your hair like that?"

"What is it _now_ about my hair?" she said, irritated, smoothing over her left eyebrow. Did Roxas _always_ have to ask about everything in sight?

From the mirror she could see Roxas tilt his head slightly behind her. "I mean, look, it's like whoever cut your hair was _seriously_ scissor-challenged. It reaches just below your left ear, and _then_ it goes all the way below your right shoulder..."

"What's so wrong about that?" she said defensively, whirling around.

Roxas gave her not the Look, but a minor something that screamed -Isn't it OBVIOUS?-. "Uh, it's kinda _slanted_. I thought haircuts were supposed to be symmetrical---and it looks weird, now that I think about it."

She drew her hair over her shoulder and shot him a glare. She liked her hair _that_ way, thank you very much. "You're the one to talk, with those killer spikes of yours. How many gallons of hairgel do you have to use to keep those spikes up, Ro_xie_? she shot back, smiling at the outraged look on the boy's face. Somehow, Roxie always ticked him off.

"Feh." He crossed his arms and pouted at her. "The spikes are _natural_, and they are _not_ rock-hard solid, like what you're thinking right now."

She raised an eyebrow and suddenly stretched out a hand, ruffling Roxas' blonde, spiky, gravity-defying hair. Which, she had just found out, was actually soft and kinda silky.

_Ew. Naminé. Ew._

"Hey! Get your sticky hands outta my _hair_!" Roxas growled, brushing her hand off. Naminé scrunched up her face, because she had just imagined that Roxas had actually _purred_ when she was ruffling his hair. And his eyes were closed. And he had this contented smile on his face. And he enjoyed her hand ruffling his hair. And--

_Again, Naminé, ew. Ew forever._

"My hands are _not_ sticky, you jerk," she growled back. "And so _what_, you still have a weirder hairstyle that me."

Roxas, who was still preoccupied with brushing Naminé-germs (supposedly, his face looked like it) off his hair, bared his teeth. He was kinda cute that way. In fact, he was positively cute in _every_ way.

_EW!_

She shook her head violently, tearing her gaze from Roxas' bowed head back to the mirror. Hm. She had a bit of an overbite or something.

"Weird hairstyles are part of the Organization uniform," his voice said proudly, apparently satisfied with his cleanup of Naminé-induced cooties. "Start with Xemnas. Although me and Axel have stole his hair gel millions of times, he still has those hair-- i dunno-- _mini_ wings on the side of his head. And his hair is _silver_, not white, not platinum blonde, but silver."

She forced back a smile, turning back to the blonde boy. "And his hair's all shiny too...so shiny it sometimes burns my eyes..."

He ticked off his fingers. "Xigbar. Pirate-surfer-grandfather guy. Geez, hair's already graying, and he thinks 'oh, dude, this is _so _cool!', then ponytails it. Xaldin--creepy. He hasn't washed his dreadlocks since last Tuesday. Vexen gives new meaning to 'dirty blonde hair'--"

"Don't be so evil, he says it's because his experiments have taken a toll on his naturally shampoo-commercial-worthy locks--"

"Cripes, Naminé," he paused, blue, blue eyes wide at her. "How'd you know _that_?"

She blushed, Vexen _had_ actually said, er, slurred that out when he and Luxord had too much too drink, but she didn't want Roxas to lose any more respect for the older numbers (not that he had any to begin with, but she's a good girl, so-) "Never mind."

He shrugged. "Lexaeus. Don't tell him I told you, or for that matter, don't tell anyone, but I once caught him with curlers. That's how he gets that wavy-sticking up-hairdo."

"And how exactly did _you_ catch him with curlers?"

He blushed, much like how she had earlier. "I'll tell you my secrets if you tell me yours," he said haltingly, as if the very memory itself frightened him.

"You wish."

Roxas stuck out his tongue. "Zexion-- with all that hair hanging down his face, I'd bet he's got a _serious_ case of acne hidden."

"But he always tries to brush them back, you know..." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "He's still looking for scissors."

"Well, he should borrow a pair from Saïx, he should be finished with trimming his split ends. _Blue_ hair, Nam! Why the _heck_ does he have _blue_ hair?"

"Light blue hair," she pointed out. "And I'm next in line for the scissors, I think I've got a very bad case of split ends right here."

"Whatever. Demyx--"

"You missed a number," Naminé said offhandedly, splitting a split end (and her tongue curled over her upper lip, just like everytime she had to concentrate, and splitting a hair to the end is _very_ hard to do). "Saïx's seven, Demyx is nine...

"Wow...you _do_ know how to count," he smirked, crossing his arms. She resisted the urge to rip the tacky mirror off the wall and hurl it at Roxas.

"You just don't want to insult your best friend," she said softly. "I understand...Axel's lucky to have someone like you." She made sure Roxas didn't hear the last part, because if he did, she'll never hear the end of it.

"Are you saying something?"

"I said, Axel looks like his head's always on fire, the way his hair sticks up." She rolled her eyes. "And the _color_, jeez--"

"Ha, don't let him hear you saying that...but yeah, it sometimes looks like a flaming porcupine crawled onto his head and died," Roxas muttered under his breath, as if scared the pyro might suddenly jump him out of the shadows.

"You are _such_ a traitor, Roxie," she laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder then drawing it back again as she examined her look in the mirror. Roxas laughed too.

"I sometimes am, you know. So anyway, Demyx. He calls it a mullet, I call it a bad haircut... Luxord, ew, d'you know _he's_ the one who uses that hair wax thing the Superior made me buy during grocery-shopping?" He made a face.

"So _that's_ why his hair is always so...slicked back," her forehead wrinkled, disgusted at the thought of what Luxord's hair would actually _feel_ like. "Yeah, _ew_."

"Oh, the big one--Marluxia. We _still_ don't know whether his hair's pink, brown, or pink-brown, or--"

"Don't say pink, say a really, really light shade of red, or he'll cut your head off."

"One dangerously pink scythe against two Keyblades? Hell no," he scratched his head. "And the pink petals...ha!"

She tugged at a stray lock of hair. "Those sakura petals are razor sharp," she said, eyeing Roxas (who was now looking at _his_ reflection over her shoulder and apparently deciding whether his hair should stick out to the right, to the left, upright, or just all over the place) in the mirror. "You've never been on his angry side, have you?"

"Nope. At least, not yet," he murmured, now running a hand through his bangs (which, by some miraculous gravity-defying way of nature, had decided to rest on his forhead at a perfect sixty-degree angle). "Got almost killed by Larxene this morning, though."

She shrugged. "Only once?"

"Yep, she seemed a bit off today--- Or maybe Axel didn't let her get much sleep last night."

At which her reflection shaped its mouth into a small 'o'.

Roxas' eyes widened. "It's not _that_, Nam, they've been training all night---"

Still, her mouth was frozen in that 'o' shape.

"--_weapon_ training!"

She suddenly laughed. "What makes you think I meant something else, huh?" she teased him, laughing at the disgruntled expression on his face, which was currently a very deep shade of red.

"Shut it, Nam," he said through gritted teeth.

"Oooh, such a per-"

"Larxene then," he said loudly, cutting her off.

"Bug feelers," they said simultaneously, before staring at each other and breaking into laughter.

"Ah_huh_---bug feelers, huh?"

Naminé froze, and Roxas instantly stopped laughing at the sound of Larxene's voice, dripping with anger, slicing through the sudden silence.

"Ehhehheh," she laughed weakly as she turned to the doorway (now open, why did the Castle have doors anyway?), against which was silhouetted a bug-feelered (what? It _was_ true) Larxene. "Larx! What are you doing here...?"

"I supposed after getting Marly's mirror you'd like to get hold of tweezers to clean up your monobrow---"

"Hey! She doesn't have a monobrow! Her eyebrows are okay as they are!" Roxas said loudly, then suddenly shut his mouth, as if he'd just realized what he had said.

"--but you two, ah, _bug feelers_, huh?" She advanced threateningly, her kunais dropping down between her fingers. A pair of tweezers clinked on the ground, glinting innocently in the light of Kindom Hearts that shone from the (actually, floor-to-ceiling) window.

"W-we were just joking?" the blonde boy ventured tentatively as he grabbed Naminé's arm and started to pull her back.

"Well, _I'm_ not."

"Run for it!" Naminé yelled, torn between screaming for her nonlife and laughing at Larxene's hair. She summoned a portal and pushed Roxas in, diving in behind him.

First thing (not exactly first thing, seeing that she still has to hide from Larxene) tomorrow she's going to give the tacky mirror back to Marluxia. Or maybe she can just smash it over Roxas' head. Either way, she's better off with buying her own one.

"Nam," Roxas panted, hands on his knees as the portal disappeared behind them. "You never really answered my question, you know."

Naminé (jolted out of her thoughts on whether she would ever figure out where she had portalled them) stared at him before throwing up her hands. "You're unbelievable."

He stared at her expectantly.

_Jeez, he really wants me to answer the question._

"I suppose...my hair's like this because...it adds to my image."

"Your _image_."

She nodded, ignoring the sound of Roxas forcing back his laughter, and the urge to stuff her fist in his mouth. "My Other is an extrovert. I am her opposite, an introvert, and drawing hair over one's shoulder is supposed to convey shyness. Or at least, that's what I understand from whatever Xemnas said."

"You? Shy?" Roxas laughed. "More like seriously hair-challenged."

"Ro_xie_, you are _so_ dead."

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Naminé is OOC, yes, I've intended her to be that way, because that's how I see her before Castle Oblivion. Roxas? I dunno... making him annoying is kinda fun.

Uh. I've got a problem here. I think I should put this fic on hold...I mean, I've already got two fanfics up...and it's such a pain in the butt to update all three at the same time. What do you guys think? If not so many people like this fic, I might as well put this on hiatus. There you go. Review, okay? Tell me if I should continue or not. Flamers are welcome.


	3. Blue

**A/N: **Heya. Third part here, natch? Pre-CoM.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Kingdom Hearts, Organization XIII would have their own spin-off game... and Roxas and Naminé _won't_ remerge with Sora and Kairi...and Xemnas wouldn't be so melodramatic. XD

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g**

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_are roses **red**?_

_why are _**your**_ eyes so blue?_

_are _**you**_ going to l**ea**ve me?_

_don't you know that I **love** you?_

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**"**Phht," Roxas grumbled, walking (actually barging, judging from the splintered hinges of her white door) huffily into her room. Naminé looked up from her drawing (of a beach today--well, it looked like a beach...) of about thirty minutes of pencil-scraping into a faceful of angry blonde Nobody.

"Someone's happy today," she remarked, continuing with her sketching. She soon found out doing so quietly would become quite a feat.

"Phht," he growled again, collapsing into the white chair across her.

"What?"

"Phht."

She raised an eyebrow. "Y'know, it's not going to help if you're just going to pout there all day."

Roxas blushed indignantly as he trained his bright blue eyes on her. "How'd you know if it _is_ day in here?"

Naminé tapped her pencil on her chin thoughtfully. In a place covered in eternal night, like The World That Never Was, finding out whether it was twelve noon or twelve midnight was a challenge she was too lazy to take. Clocks? She never liked clocks; they reminded her of the passage of time which had no effect on them Nobodies.. she and Roxas would stay fifteen for the rest of their existence.

He made a derisive noise. "They're planning to build another castle."

She swiveled her head in his direction. "Really?"

"Yeah..."

"Why do I get the impression that you're not exactly..._excited _about it?"

Roxas huffed again.

She laughed. "What...are they going to make you guys do manual labor?" she laughed out loud. The vision of _Vexen_ carrying blocks of marble was utterly impossible.

"He's splitting us up."

"Huh?" she stared at his darkened scowl. "Splitting us up?"

"It's stupid. The Superior's sending some of us to the Castle Oblivion--which I personally think is a dumb name, Never Was is _way_ cooler--for a year or something."

Naminé rolled her eyes. Sometimes Roxas was just too shallow for her liking; so _what_ if they were split up? It's not like they'd stay that way forever; aside from the fact that Nobodies don't die (well, they _did_ fade away, they can't die since they weren't alive in the first place), Naminé was positive that Organization XIII can throw anything hurled their way. In fact, the Order would actually _like_ getting away from each other, judging from the assortment of weapons she often caught herself in the middle of. She _had_ threatened to screw their memories up, and that somehow lessened the fighting outside her door. Somehow.

"And you're mad because...?"

"He's. Splitting. Us. Up." He whined, gesturing helplessly before burying his face in his crossed arms, elbows resting on the white table. Naminé took that as a signal not to press on asking; if Roxas was too upset sbout something, he tended to get stubborn. And when he got stubborn, there was nothing on the face of the earth that could make him talk.

"Hm. Roxas?"

He shook his head into his arms.

"Hey, look up. Listen, if _we_ ever get split..."

He made a choking noise, and it sounded like he was banging his head onto the marble table.

"Aggh." She reached over and tapped him sharply on the head. He looked up indignantly. _Score one for Naminé!_

"Yep, keep that expression." Flipping to a fresh page in her sketchpad, she began the outlines of a face.

-_she didn't want to lose him, he must stay with her-_

Roxas' eyebrows furrowed. Grumbling, she reached across the table and forced them to relax, making him blush spectacularly. "Don't do that. You'll get wrinkles."

"What are you doing?"

"Drawing, duh," she said sarcastically without looking up. Roxas was definitely _not_ a good model, judging from the way he fidgets everytime he has nothing to do for a long time (which, in Roxas-time, is equivalent to ten minutes). "Like I said, if we get split, even for a year or something, I'll still remember your--"

"But I don't want to get split apart!"

-_she _will_ forget him, but her heart tells her she'll never-_

"Stop moving and let me finish my sketch--"

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-----_will you **stay** with me?_-----

-

"--Ro_xas_ c'mon stop fidgeting!"

"I'm not fidgeting!" he shot back. Okay, so maybe he was squirming a bit, but it wasn't like he was dancing on his chair or something!

Naminé heaved a sigh as she tore her gaze from him and her lithe fingers glided across the paper, graphite marking the white surface in curved lines that he knew would soon transform into an amazing work of art. He stared at the paper (_not_ her, not her, not her, _at the paper!_), fascinated.

Sometimes he and Axel would watch her draw together (as they hid from the Superior---they often did whenever they stole his hair gel). She had even drawn a portrait of the two; Axel grinning with his arm slung around his shoulder, Roxas with hand discreetly sticking up from behind the pyro's head, giving him the devil's horns so befitting him. (hey--_he_ was the one who always came up with the pranks...technically.)

Sometimes he and Demyx would watch, with number Nine providing background music. Naminé would glare at Demys everytime one of his water forms would come too near her precious sketches, but would quickly melt under one of the supposedly dashing smiles he would always flash. Roxas didn't know how, but he felt...wait. He couldn't feel, so feeling jealous didn't count, right?

-_he swore he'd watch over her, protect her forever-_

Sometimes he'd watch alone, and those were the times (although he'll never admit it) that he'd like the most. He liked to stare at Nam--erh, her sketching, alone, thank you very much.

His nonexistent heart twinged with the thought of getting separated from all of them. They _might_ try to kill each other occasionally, but...they _were_ his family, no matter how twisted it might seem. He'd miss them.

Especially her.

_ROXAS stop that...You. Don't. Like. Her. _

He shook his head violently, making her scowl. Oh yeah. She was sketching him. "Sorry," he said hastily, not wanting to be the subject of her death glares. He _could _retaliate with one of his own glares (he _is_ notorious for his infamous 'the Look'), but somehow, he didn't feel like it right now.

She scrutinized his face closely, making heat rush up his cheeks.

"Ten minutes more, fifteen tops--" She said softly before her pencil moved again, making quiet sctratching noises against the paper. "You can move now."

"Finally," he said loudly, stretching his arms over his head. He resumed watching her again. He sometimes wondered why he always wanted to rile her up; maybe he wanted to ruffle her feathers, but she never did seem to lose her cool. She seemed to have a calming effect on him, and he'd prefer her to a round of Curagas any day.

He'd prefer her to anything, he realized. His throat tightened at the thought of getting separated from her.

But they were Nobodies, and Nobodies have no emotions whatsoever. _Huge_ roadblock.

He couldn't speculate whether she felt the same way about him, since they weren't supposed to feel at all.

He was hopeless.

-_even if it's wrong for them to be together-_

Okay, even if they could really feel...seeing from her actions, she saw him as a friend... a member of the illustrious Organization XIII.

"Naminé..." her name slipped out of his lips unknowingly, and she snapped her head up, staring at him questioningly.

"Yes?"

Roxas' mind worked frantically for something to say as her eyes bored into his own (thus ensuring a fresh wave of nervousness would manifest itself into red splotches on his cheeks). "Uhm...I have another question."

She tipped her head to the side, apparently amused. "Go ahead, shoot."

"Uh.. Why are your eyes so blue...when the...while your Other has _purple_ eyes...?

Her brows furrowed in a very good imitation of his earlier as she pondered the question. He berated himself for asking such a stupid, not to mention lame, question.

"Why," she asked quietly, a tone so quiet yet it echoed off the walls of the room, a tone so serious that it made his breath hitch," don't you like my eyes? Do you want me to be more like Kairi..?"

His bit his lip as the blonde girl looked at him with a pained expression on her face. His voice seemed to have chosen this most opportune moment to disappear.

"Naminé!" Larxene suddenly coalesced into the room in strands of darkness, but her arrival did nothing to diffuse the tense atmosphere in the room. "Naminé, the Superior wants to see you _now_." She said in a clipped voice. Never mind that her voice always sounded like that.

"Okay. Coming," Naminé replied, her voice strained. Larxene alternated a curious gaze between both of them, but decided otherwise when Roxas gave her the Look. Three pairs of blue eyes avoided each other.

"Oh, and Roxas, if you see Axel, tell him to hide somewhere I can't find him if he doesn't want to lose an arm," number Twelve called out as she disappeared together with Naminé, leaving him alone in the white room.

Never had he felt so alone before.

_You. Don't. Like. Her. Period. She'll get over the stupid question. Stop torturing yourself._ the voice in the back of his head said.

"Yeah...I don't like her," he said aloud to himself, his voice bouncing off the marble walls as he reached over for the piece of paper Naminé had been drawing on. His portrait was already finished.

An exact likeness in graphite... and a single handwritten line pushed into a corner.

"_You're my sanctuary._

_by Naminé."_

He choked on his words as he read the three words over and over again.

He couldn't feel, none of them could, how _could_ he like her?

"I don't like Naminé," Roxas repeated to himself in a soft voice, fingering the page of white.

"I love her."

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What do you think? Tell me in a review...reviews make me write more.

Flamers are welcome.


	4. White

**A/N:** Chapter 4. Pre-CoM. Namixas.

**Disclaimer:** No. I don't.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g**

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**N a m i **_x a s_

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_**Bl**ank **slate**, white wa**lls**_

_black _coat_, resolve falls;_

_Lost in me**mor**ies, se**ek **_**h**elp _from you_

_A **guard**ian angel, eyes so _**blue**

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"No _way_!" Roxas yelled, making Naminé wince as she clapped her hands over her ears.

"I'm pretty sure some Nobodies didn't hear you from, like, fifty miles away," she growled, glaring at the blonde number Thirteen.

He gave her his infamous puppy-eyes, and her anger melted, once again, easily. _But_ that was not distracting her---

"Say biddy-bye to your knight."

"Nami_né_!" he whined once again, his eyes glued to the white marble figurine she had just taken off the board and replaced with her own black rook. "Come _on_, some consideration here!"

She stuck out her tongue. "You challenged _me_ to a game of chess, if I remember correctly." _That_ he did, after thirty minutes of wheedling her to stop drawing for just an hour and do something else. Roxas' eyebrows were now furrowed once again, and she automatically reached over the board and smoothed them out, ignoring the blush that spread across his cheeks instantly. He looked up indignantly at her.

"No distractions!" He snapped, supposedly pondering his next move, which would do nothing to hinder his impending loss.

"You're terrible at chess," she remarked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"Phht," Moving his queen, he snarled. Whether at the chessboard, at her, or at nonlife in general, Naminé had no idea.

A smile spread across her face as she picked up her rook and moved it two squares, taking his queen. Ignoring Roxas' vehement objections, she clapped her hands gleefully. "Check...and mate."

"Nami_né_!" He said loudly, jutting out his lower lip. From the right angle, it looked as if he was going to cry.

"You _are_ terrible at chess."

"Phht. Whatever," Roxas grumbled, gathering the pieces together (and he looked like he was itching to throw them at her) and putting them back inside the board, closing it with a snap that threatened to break it into marble pieces.

"Give me that," she wrenched the board from his grip and stood up, walking to her white closet in the corner. She was in the process of shoving it into the topmost shelf when she heard a chair topple over. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Roxas grinning sheepishly at her from the floor. Apparently, he had stretched his arms and tipped his chair far enough to make him lose his balance. Resulting in one blonde spilled on the floor. She rolled her eyes and shoved the board back in place (meaning, between the Monopoly box and Demyx's bag of limited-edition Disney stamps).

"Now what do we do...what to do..." he was murmuring as she rummaged through another drawer, pulling out her trusty white pencil and her sketchpad.

"No. What do _you_ do," she glared at him, not wanting him to waste any more of her time.

She and Roxas had reached a silent agreement: forget the whole portrait sketching thing and let everything be. His portrait itself had disappeared, and truth be told, she didn't care where it ended up. Funny how a sheet of paper can bare your soul to the last person you'd want to.

Uhm. Like she _had_ a soul, anyway.

She bit her lip as her pencil started its usual feathery touch on the very white, very blank paper. Well, it _started _to move, but for the first time in her existence, she had absolutely no urge to draw.

_Cripes._

Roxas was humming, not something that Naminé would really like to hear today.

The paper remained blank, and she resisted the urge to bang her head on the table for lack of anything to draw. She _hated_ seeing a blank piece of paper, in fact, she hated seeing _anything_ blank. Which would be a paradox; she herself was a blank slate. What she knew had only been supplied by others, her _memories _were nothing but whiteness.

She wanted to scribble _hard_ on the paper, draw harsh black lines, draw _anything_ just to make it not so _blank._

Unlike her.

"If you stare any more at that sheet of paper it'll burst into flames," Roxas interrupted her train of thought. She didn't know whether to feel mad or grateful. Whatever, she can't feel, so there's no difference. She instead drew tiny little bars on one corner of the white paper...

Thirteen bars. Thirteen days.

Hm. She wondered whether Xemnas had a fetish for the number thirteen.

-_**don't** push me away-_

Roxas placed his elbows on the table and looked around, not in boredom, but out of sheer curiousity. He had only noticed it just now; Naminé probably had not been introduced to a certain thing called _color_.

White curtains, white ceiling, white walls, white floors, white chairs, white dresser, white illuminating Materia, you name it, she has it in white.

Now, the Castle That Never Was _was_ technically white in itself, but color had sneaked its way in, giving it, at least, a semblance of looking normally lived in. His own bedsheets were midnight blue. Axel's carpeting was warm red. Heck, even Xigbar's room was dotted with splashes of sandy yellow and palmtree green (number Two had always had a thing for beaches, and Roxas was sensible enough not to ask why).

_The_ only thing in her room that wasn't white was her sketches, her materials, and she herself. Okay, so that may count as 'things' already, but that's besides Roxas' point.

He had more than once gritted his teeth in frustration over the overabundance of white everytime he spent time in her room; it made him want to grab her crayons and watercolor and just splash _any other color_ that white on the blank walls.

Roxas picked at the edge of his black sleeve, glancing every so often at the girl across him. Naminé looked lost as she stared at the piece of blank paper in front of her. His gaze traveled from the white (jeez--even her _pencil_ was white) pencil twirling slowly in her dainty fingers upwards.

Flaxen locks framed her face in a blonde embrace, and irregularly chopped bangs covered her forehead and brushed furrowed eyebrows lightly. She hadn't drawn her hair over her shoulder like she usually does, and truth be told, Roxas liked it when she did. Pale lips were pursed together in concentration under a well-defined, if not small, nose, and her big, blue and _really_ blue eyes conveyed frustration.

Naminé looks cute when she's frustrated. Really. That's why Roxas likes to pester her so much.

_There goes Roxas again_.

"What, you have artist's block?" he asked, tilting his head.

She glanced up at him. "Is there such a thing as artist's block, Roxie?"

He bared his teeth at her at the mention of his nickname; it sounded so damn _girly_. "Well, it sure as hell looks that you've got it now."

"I need my inspiration."

"Really?" he said sarcastically.

Naminé glared at him before darkening something she had marked earlier on the paper. Roxas raised an eyebrow as he peered at the paper. She hurriedly snatched it away, sticking out her tongue at him.

And she says _he_ has the maturity of a five-year old.

He tapped his fingers on the white table before speaking up. "Question!"

She gave him an exasperated look. "Again?"

"Obviously."

"Since I don't have anything better to do, let me hear it and I'll try to answer whatever crazy thing you have to ask _this_ time," she said evenly, putting down her pencil and lacing her fingers together. Roxas interpreted from the statement and the tone of voice that she really meant 'Ask anything like the last time you did and you're dead.' Yeah. She meant something like that.

Swallowing nervously, he brushed away a few stray strands of hair dangling from the front of his eyes.

"Why do you like the color white so much, Naminé?"

"I don't like white," she said immediately, almost angrily.

"O-oh." He leaned away slightly, surprised at her reaction. "Okay."

She scowled at him, picking her pencil up and started scrubbing the pencil viciously on the paper.

"Uhm, if I might ask, why is your room so white, then?"

Naminé stared at the paper, and spoke without really looking at him."Xemnas wants it white."

"What about you?"

"I don't get sunlight much often. I'm a Nobody only by the skin of my teeth, but that doesn't have to do anything with the white dress, does it? White is innocence. In my case, white means I'm practically nothing," she said in a very final tone of voice.

"You're being random today," he countered.

"Because you keep asking me these questions," she snapped back.

He laced his hands behind his head and reclined slightly. "And you answer them, proving that you _do_ know something."

"And that's supposed to cheer me up?"

"Whoever said you _had _ to be cheered up?"

"Shut up, Roxas," she huffed.

Now, Roxas is a very stubborn Nobody, in fact, he's the most stubborn of them all. When he wants to get to someone, he simply does not stop until he does so. He wasn't going to be scared off by Naminé going into one of her primadonna moments.

"You're the one who's touchy today," he said, amused. "You're not practically nothing, you know. At least, not to me," he added in an undertone.

"I heard that," she muttered, her pencil clattering onto the table with a loud echo. "Stop trying to pretend that you care, okay? It's sickening."

Roxas rolled his eyes. Typical Nobody defensive reaction. He was already used to that.

"But I do care."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do."

"No you don't."

"No I don't."

"Yes _you do!_" Naminé exclaimed, flustered. She clapped a hand to her mouth after realizing what she had just said.

"Hm?" he laughed at the indignation on her face.

"You can't care about me," she said quietly. "You musn't."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't."

Roxas crossed his arms and pouted. "Just because I don't have a heart doesn't mean that I can't remember how to feel concern, you know. Stop pushing me away; we're in this together."

"I need no-one, we were _never_ in this together," she hissed, venom dripping from every syllable.

Roxas bit his lip and forced the hurt expression from his face, pasting on the grin that he made sure everyone saw as who he was. Happy Kid strikes again. "Wooh, _never in this together_," he imitated. "Like hell no."

"Well," Naminé said, raising her voice as her pencil blazed to life across the sheet of paper. "I'm advising you stop caring right now."

"I can't do that."

"Stop being so thick," she shot at him, annoyed. "You don't have feelings, you have borrowed ones---"

"So I have feelings then, even if they're only borrowed!" He pointed out, but he fell silent at the look on her face.

"---and besides, you can't care about someone who's not here, right?"

"Sure I can---," he sat bolt upright in his chair, jolted as he comprehended what she had just said, and the trace of sadness in her voice. "What do you mean, 'someone who's not here'?" He asked urgently, not really wanting to hear her answer.

Naminé eyed him and quirked an eyebrow. "You _are_ dense," she sighed, sliding the sheet of paper across the table for him to see.

Roxas felt himself blanch as he stared at the black-and-white rendition of Castle Oblivion. Exactly as how Xemnas had described in the meeting.

"What?" he joked in a dry voice, "Are you planning to be the Order's architect?"

"I'm not joking, Roxas. I'm leaving in two weeks for Castle Oblivion."

He felt his resolve crumble as he stared at her deadly serious expression. Swallowing the rapidly-forming lump in his throat, he portalled out soundlessly, not wanting to let the girl he loved see him crying for her.

Screw not being able to feel. He loved Naminé, and there's no way in hell he's giving up on her.

-_spa**rkl**ing, s**hi**ny, sti**ngi**ng, lo**ve**ly-_

Naminé stared, stunned, not at the empty chair Roxas had just portalled out of, but at the twin small circles of saltwater sitting innocently on the sketch she had handed to him.

They sparkled in the white light, and her own tears sparkled too as they trailed down her skin.

The tears felt cold, just like her.

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_Read._

_Review._

_Flame me if you want to._

-

Why do all my fanfiction end up being so dramatic? Geez!


	5. Cross

**A/N:** I need a breather. Gah. My wrists are killing me. My professors are killing me with insane amounts of schoolwork, so sorry for the slight delay in updates X3. However, this is the longest chapter I have written.

Unbelievable amounts of fluffiness ahead, and some...cliché-ness. This is where the Romance part comes in.

**Disclaimer**: Kingdom Hearts ain't mine, sadly enough.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g**

**--------------------**

_N a m i_ **x a s**

**-**

_star _**bright**_, star _light

_first sta**r t**hat w**ink**s out of sight_

_for no_**body**_'s sak_e, w_ish **I** mi_**gh**_t_

_set **love **free thi_**s twi**_lit n**ight**_

**-**

**"Roxas!"**

A blonde boy shifted position under his very thick, very blue blanket, mumbling something incoherent about people and their insane obsession with time.

"Roxas, get up already!"

He buried his head deeper into the softness of his white (poor, poor pillow, Roxas didn't quite manage to find the matching set of blue pillowcases after hanging them in the laundry room...well, better his pillowcase missing than his boxers) fluffy pillow, willing his best friend to just go away and give up on waking him.

"Roxas! If you don't get up right _now_ I'm going to break down your door!" Axel's voice hollered once again, and the boy's trained ears picked up the faint _whoosh_ of a chakram being summoned.

Instead, he wriggled more into the covers. "Like we ever needed doors anyway," he grumbled as he did so.

There was the sound of splintering wood an instant before the door literally blew open in a haze of fire, smoke and red hair, revealing a fuming Flurry of Dancing Flames. Roxas dived deeper under his comforter and curled into a ball. The last time Axel made an entrance like that, Roxas had not been quick enough to dive for cover. For the next two weeks he found a wooden splinter lodged in a random part of his body every day. No, he had no intention of repeating said disaster, no matter how profusely Axel apologized.

"We've got recon in Twilight Town today, remember?" Axel muttered as he peeled off the layers of warm cloth off Roxas, who bared his teeth at the sight of the pyromaniac. He didn't exactly get enough sleep, he's admitting that. But _why_ exactly? That one he's not telling. Axel would probably laugh at him.

"What...what time is it anyway?" Roxas asked groggily as Axel activated his room's Materia, flooding the room with light. He blinked, trying to get the spots out of his vision.

Axel smugly pointed to the luminous digits of his bedside clock/radio/cd player/notebook PC/soda can holder(a sort of welcome-to-your-nonlife gift from a very enthusiastic Demyx).

"Huh...? One...zero..." He yawned and stopped short.

"TEN THIRTY!" he bolted upright from his bed.

"Superior's pissed, if you must know," the redhead positively beamed at him.

Roxas sprang to his feet and swung his closet door open, searching frantically for his commoner clothes (which he had proudly put together himself, he looked cool, to say the very least) that he had bought yesterday. Xemnas had briefed them on this mission just last night; him and Axel were to scout Twilight Town for its Keyhole and find out whether Heartless had any connection to it yet...and they were supposed to go scout four and a half hours ago.

Oh, he was in trouble. He rushed into his bathroom, toothbrush and toothpaste in one hand, cream white polo, black muscle shirt, very pale green cargo pants, red sneakers, black-and-white wristband, and two finger rings clutched miraculously in the other.

He heard Axel flop onto his bed and laugh.

"_Why didn't you wake me up earlier?_" Roxas yelled through his bathroom door, struggling with the black shirt and zipping it up hurriedly, cursing when it got stuck.

"You _were_ put in charge of this mission, weren't you?" His gleeful laughter floated through, making Roxas cringe. Borrowed or not, he hated it when Axel laughed when he messed up. He bent down and put his sneakers on firmly, ignoring his peals of laughter.

"_You could've just woken me up!_" he said crossly, straightening himself up and searching for a comb. He tentatively ran it through his hair, which, as usual, did nothing at all. His hair simply wanted to be left alone like that; spiked up all over his head.

"Is he up yet?"

Roxas froze, and the comb clattered to the sink.

"Oh, Axel, that's the fifth door you've broken down in two days..." Naminé's voice trailed off. "Really. Think of all the poor trees that had to be cut down just to make the doors. And think of all the effort the Dusks took to paint them white."

"They could've painted them any other damn color than white!"

Naminé was here. Okay. What was she doing here? He couldn't face her, not after that...erh, bursting-into-tears-and-portalling-out incident yesterday! It'd be awkward! It'd be uncomfortable! It's be so damn hard to face her! It'd be--

"You lazy, lazy bum, sleeping in on a mission!" the door creaked open, revealing a very flustered memory witch. Roxas gaped.

She tapped her foot impatiently. "I woke up _so_ early for this, and you sleep in? What is up with _that?_"

For a Nobody, she sure is good at pretending. Roxas got over it quickly, and took this as a heavenly sign that Naminé had another unspoken agreement with him to forget whatever happened. Great, just great. He had actually been hoping she'd confront him, but what the heck.

"Uh, Nam, if I might ask without getting hurt, _why_ exactly are you--"

"Na_mi**né **_are you going to stare at Roxas all day?" Axel's gangly frame suddenly appeared behind the blonde girl, making the both of them jump (and in the process made the both of them blush like mad; this remembering emotions business made nonlife a lot more complicated than it was supposed to be).

_Slap_!

Axel winced as he touched a now-tender cheek (and jaw actually). Naminé stomped past him and opened a portal.

Roxas grinned up at his best friend. "Let's get going, shall we? Before the Superior kills us."

He snorted. "We're not even alive, do I have to get that through your girl-crazy head?"

"That's not what I meant---_hey_ what the hell do you--"

"ROXAS! AXEL'S NOT GOING TO BE THE ONLY ONE WITH A SORE JAWBONE IF YOU DO NOT GET IN MY PORTAL RIGHT **NOW**!"

-

_is this **normal**?_

_-_

**No.**

Most definitely _not_ normal, in Naminé's opinion. Okay, so they had it worse, but seriously.

Twilight Town was as normal as most towns could get, complete with the postboy skater, the help wanted ads, the quaint cheery houses, the various accessory shops, heck, even the pigeon messengers. Straight out of a book.

Except that it was stuck in twilight. She didn't actually think that Twilight Town was _literally_ twilight 24/7.

Surreal. She shut her jaw, which had dropped open a minute ago. Smirking, she shut Roxas' open mouth with a snap. Cerulean eyes stared at her indignantly. She chuckled and closed the portal.

She knew Roxas loved her, and she knew she loved him. One tiny thing though: they couldn't feel. It was just so _wrong_.

So go with the Naminé philosophy: Ignore it, and it'll go away.

Besides, she's leaving in a week for Castle Oblivion; might as well make the most of it.

"Why is _she _here anyway?" she heard Roxas grumble to Axel as they walked in front of her, weaving their way through the crowd of Somebodies. Naminé discreetly tapped a stunned passerby who had seen them portal in; her eyes went blank for a second before blinking rapidly.

"Wha--?" The girl shook her head, disoriented. Naminé studied her; she was as tall as her, with rich brown hair down her shoulders, a school uniform (red plaid skirt, red plaid tie, red plaid--it made her head hurt how everything _had_ to be colored like twilight, what _was_ up with these people?), and piercing emerald eyes.

"Are you okay, miss?" She asked casually.

"Oh, okay, I am, thank you." With a dazed wave, she was lost in the crowd.

Naminé smiled, admiring her handiwork. She _was_ good at chaining memories down, well, on some people.

"Oy! Naminé!" Axel called from somewhere in the Market Square. She made her way down to the two Nobodies..._that_ was why she was here; she was their safeguard from getting discovered. If a passerby had remembered insomuch as a strand of darkness, they'd get chewed out by Xemnas. From the look on Roxas' face, he hadn't known until Axel had told him.

"--_was_ in charge of the mission, _why_ did she have to come along?" Roxas was muttering vehemently.

"Because there's a very good chance you'd screw this mission up, Roxie," she said sweetly, grinning secretly at the way Axel burst into laughter.

Roxas bared his teeth and shot the both of them The Look.

This was going to be a very long mission.

-

_isn't that **sweet**?_

_-_

"...is it **sweet**, or is it _salty_?"

Roxas rolled his eyes as Axel licked the light blue popsicle tentatively and quirked a smile. So what if he was on his fourth Sea-Salt ice cream already? Sighing, he let himself relax on the bench. Really, this was the first mission he had gone on that required no violent use of his Keyblades. It was a nice change.

"It's so weird yet okay at the same time," Naminé commented, licking her bottom lip free of the sweet concoction. "Like the time Demyx put both salt and sugar in the popcorn."

He nodded an acquiescing yes and proceeded to lick his popsicle into oblivion.

It was, by number Eight's designer wristwatch (a supposed-to-be welcome-to-nonlife-gift _for _Demyx, but Axel had never gotten around to giving it to him without getting soaked by water), about nine in the evening. The mission _had_ been a success; the Keyhole had been found lurking in the Clocktower face, and it still haven't been tainted with the Heartless' grimy pawprints (or clawprints, or trails, or whatever they leave behind). So Twilight Town was blessed, at least for a while; Heartless still haven't figured out how to break through the barrier (wonder how the Heartless didn't know about the Corridors; it was _the_ way to travel when you're from the realm of darkness). It was still a haven completely free of the heart-ripping things.

Which was bad.

As Xemnas had explained (in his usual overly dramatic way), they needed _lots_ of Heartless, so the Keyblade Wielder from the realm of light could slay them, so the hearts would join with Kingdom Hearts, so that they could finally have _their own_ hearts.

Exactly how Kingdom Hearts would give them their heart, Roxas didn't bother to ask. He wasn't much of a details guy to care, anyway. Hm. He'd have to find a way to get them Heartless here in this town...he can't feel remorse, anyway, not for Somebodies he had absolutely nothing to do with.

He eyed his best friend as he threw the wooden stick into a nearby trash can. Axel had decided to go rebel today; it _was_ the only one stereotype that would fit in with his hair and twin green tattoos under his eyes. He lounged back in a black muscle shirt not unlike Roxas', and equally black pants. Chains hung heavily around his wrists and neck, and he had additional (temporary, Axel whispered to him, he _had_ borrowed Vexen's black Sharpie...Really, the things they do for missions) tattoo on both arms.

Naminé, on the other hand, hadn't bothered to dress up. She still had on her white sundress and white sandals. She _was_ right when she said she looked like a ghost.

_A very beautiful ghost._

Uhm. With Roxas looking like a skater kid, Axel looking like a guy who lived for rock concerts, and a very innocent-looking Naminé sitting squished between them, it was awkward. No wonder people had been throwing them all sorts of looks. Naminé had to reach out and chain memories more than once, with half the subjects failing to respond.

Weird. You'd think her powers would work on everyone, but no dice.

"Sooo..." Axel started, the beginnings of a grin (that Roxas didn't particularly liked being on the recieving end of, it was Axel's I'm-going-to-do-something-that's-going-to-seriously-piss-you-off grin) blossoming on his face. "Do you two have any plan to go back tonight, or are you planning to do something that would take the whole night, or...?"

He dodged a half-finished popsicle thrown by a furiously blushing Naminé.

Roxas watched as the ice cream melted into a puddle onto the cobbled ground.

Typical Axel. Always finding ways to make him feel awkward. Yay.

"Naminé, Naminé," the pyro's grin widened as she stuck out her tongue, "You'd have to get used to me...you _do_ remember I'm going to Castle Oblivion with you, right?"

"Oh, you _are_?" She replied in mock surprise. "I would never have guessed, if only Xemnas hadn't been repeating it to me every single time I pass him in the Corridors."

They laughed.

Roxas frowned.

His two favorite Nobodies were leaving him behind. He's a _Nobody, _he wasn't supposed to feel...sad. He shook his head vehemently. The two stopped laughing and stared at him.

Axel grinned his infernal grin. "I'm gonna go ahead back to the Castle, Rox, I'm going to do the recon Report."

He stared at his best friend. Sure, he _was_ his best friend, but Axel _hated_ paperwork.

"It's getting late anyway, we should get going," Naminé said, tilting her head sideways thoughtfully.

"Hmm...? Naminé, I thought you told me you wanted time alone with my best mate?"

No.

He...he didn't dare. Axel wouldn't.

Roxas and Naminé spluttered and blushed simultaneously.

"What the hell Axel?" she hollered, still red in the face as she searched her surroundings for something to throw at number Eight.

Roxas scooted a bit farther from the furious girl, seeing that she'd try to throw either the bench they were sitting on, or him. Better safe than sorry, yes?

"Ciao, Roxie, Naminé, I've got paperwork to do," Axel managed to get out before portalling out to avoid getting tackled by the pale blonde girl beside him. Roxas had seen the I'm-so-sorry-but-I-had-to-do-something-drastic look in his eyes, and he had only given him The Look in return, that eloquently said I'm-kicking-your-sorry-ass-as-soon-as-I-get-my-hands-on-you-you-traitor.

Okay.

Naminé was hyperventilating beside him in a way that very much reminded him of Saïx when he went fully berserk. It was a very frightening sight.

"Uhm...are you okay?" He asked nervously, hands held loosely at the sides ready to summon his Keyblades just in case she decided to claw his eyes out or something equally horrible.

"That's a stupid question," she snapped, leaning on the bench. "Do I _look_ like I'm okay, Roxie?"

"Stop it with the Roxie thing, Nam!"

"Whatever. I like Roxie."

Somehow, in the convoluted network of neurons that was Roxas' brain, this registered as the words 'I like Roxas'. Said brain started firing up, and Roxas' face blushed crimson in effect.

She sighed and glanced at him once before looking up into the twilight sky. "I'm going to miss the sky, you know."

"The...sky?" he asked stupidly, not comprehending anything at the moment.

"Castle Oblivion is a windowless fortress--stuck in a transition world between darkness and light. Don't know what we're doing there...only portalling could get anyone there, though. Weird. I'm going to miss Kingdom Hearts' light after all," she laughed lightly.

"Hmmm...you're also going to miss Demyx and his impromptu concerts..." Roxas managed to say evenly, not daring to look at her for fear that he might not be able to talk normally. Yes, Naminé had that effect on him. "And Xigbar's insane training routines..."

"Ah, but _you're_ going to miss Lexaeus' gourmet cooking!" she clapped her hands gleefully. "And Axel and Larxene's everyday attempt to kill each other!"

"And the way they always manage to get me involved in some unexplainable way," he murmured. Strange thing to miss, from a Somebody's point of view. But the clash of number Eight and Twelve have been a constant source of entertainment; so far, the worst they have done to each other was a broken rib and a broken leg; they were so evenly matched. Yeah, he's going to miss that, but he's going to miss Axel more. He's Roxas' closest thing to a brother, after all.

She sighed wistfully. "We're going to miss a lot of things."

"Yeah," he gulped, forcing himself to look up at the sky along with her. "Uh...are you sure about that rule, you know, about visiting...?"

She narrowed her eyes disapprovingly. "Xemnas has instructed us. Castle Oblivion will remain isolated from the Castle That Never Was, until the mission is over." Her eyebrows drooped. "I wish I knew what we were doing, though..."

Roxas' face fell. "How long again?"

"Half a year."

"That's...a very long time."

A pause.

She started twiddling her thumbs. "I have to admit, I'm going to miss a lot of things."

"Me too."

Another very uncomfortable pause.

Taking a deep breath, Roxas took advantage of the sudden silence; he edged closer to Naminé and stared at her. Never mind that his cheeks were probably bright red by now; the twilight would make it unnoticeable.

"Are you going to miss _me_?" He asked pointedly, knowing how the girl would interpret it as. This time, Roxas had no regrets asking his question outright as he watched Naminé stare at her hands. He _needed_ to know whether she _would_ miss him--he needed validation that at least, someone acknowledged his presence on a very personal level.

He wanted to feel loved, even with his pathetic excuses for emotions.

Naminé remained silent.

"I asked you a question. I need an answer," he pressed on, his cerulean eyes boring into the side of her lowered head.

Never had silence seemed so loud. He felt his resolve crumble into a heap on the floor as she held her silence. Love was something he longed to feel, but unrequited love was something he had never looked forward to. He gritted his teeth, so _this_ was what rejection feeled like. Maybe that's why she was silent; she was thinking of a way to tell him she wanted to be only friends or that she couldn't feel something like love or that she was glad that he was gone or that she wasn't actually going to miss him in any way or---whatever. His head pounded. Woe to his assisgned partner in training tonight.

Her silence was maddening.

What did he do to deserve this? He didn't torture cute little furry animals, he didn't do bloody murders (well, most of the time, anyway), he didn't go and spill oil into the ocean or something. He didn't believe in karma, and he wasn't starting to believe now.

Curse his being a Nobody and his borrowed emotions.

Hm. Curse his borrowed emotions; if he had absolutely no emotions at all, he wouldn't be able to feel pain like this.

Cripes.

He got to his feet with an angry flourish, not looking at her. He might do something violent, like all Nobodies do when they're angered enough. His hands balled into fists as he started to walk away.

Roxas felt an ice-cold hand close around his closed fist and pry his fingers open, and an object being forced into his hand. Surprised, he brought it up to his face.

A silver cross glinted in the twilight's warm orange light. Connected to a shining fine silver chain, it formed a necklace. He fingered the cross and turned it over.

_We will be together forever._

_No matter whatever we do;_

_You will be my own sanctuary,_

_Simply because I love you._

He stared at the delicately engraved words in each arm of the cross in shock. He whipped around, staring at Naminé's bowed head.

"I'm going to miss you the most, Roxas," she said quietly.

"I don't care how long the mission lasts, as long as I can see you again after, everything'll be okay. Everything seems more okay when you're around. I don't care if you annoy me, I don't care if you make my life miserable, as long as you're there, everything will be _okay_," she said brokenly, crystal-clear tears marring her perfect porcelain skin. "Everything _will_ be...because I have someone to call a loved one, I have someone to look forward to. I love you Roxas, I don't care whether it's borrowed or what, all I know and all I care about is that _I love you_."

Roxas' brain seemed to have stopped functioning.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you like this, I mean, I was so obvious, it's just that I'm going to miss you so much, oh---" she spoke no more, sobs taking over her voice completely.

"Hush."

With the speed of a Keyblade Master but with the gentleness of a lover's touch, Roxas immediately sat back on the bench and took the sobbing girl into his arms. "Hush...I'm here. We may get separated, but I swear we'll see each other again. I promise."

Naminé continued to cry freely onto him, her breathing warm and ragged against his neck, her hand clutching the front of his shirt like she always did whenever she was afraid.

"...don't cry, Nam, don't cry, it's only half a year..."

He didn't care that tears were rolling down his own face as he comforted her, in the best way a Nobody could manage.

"I love you too," he whispered into her ear, and her sobbing quieted, whimpers drifting on the wind.

-

_is this...**hea**_ven

_-_

**Morning** found two teenagers fast asleep on one of Sunset Hill's famous benches, their faces serene and untroubled.

A girl with choppy flaxen hair had her head on the blonde boy's chest, her fragile hands holding his shirt in a loose grip. The boy had his head tilted slightly forward in sleep, and his arms had been encircled in a protective circle around the girl's shoulder and waist.

Two strange weapons had driven themselves on both sides of the bench, each the semblance of a very elaborate key, answering their master's call to protect the girl at all costs before falling asleep the night before.

Serene and untroubled.

It was peace...even for a little while.

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Like I said, insane amounts of fluffiness. Roxas and Naminé are just so darn fun to write about.

Please review, guys! If you have time to leave me a review, please REVIEW! A lot of hits, but so few people REVIEW! (But to the guys who review...thank you so much!)

Flames are accepted.

Ja ne!


	6. Hiding

**A/N: **Romantic. Cheesy. Sappy. Fluffy. Whatever. I just want to write about a relationship that KHII never really did shed much light on (and that ending was _so_ much lacking, c'mon, Roxas and Naminé deserved more screen time than that!).

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Kindom Hearts, I'd be making KH3 NOW and have it come out this Christmas. Nooo way in hell it's mine.

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**Q** u **e** s **t** i **o** n **i** n **g**

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N a m i **x a s**

_Olly olly oxen free_

_Hide from yourself, hide from me;_

_As I count down to the inevitable goodbye_

_Come out, come out, don't be sad, don't cry._

"Three, four, five--"

Naminé sprinted up the white stairs, the spoken words echoing ominously off the white (white, white and _more_ white--seriously, one of these days she's going to go crazy) corridor walls, mingling with the echo of her footsteps. Now she wondered _why_ she was running when she could just portal out.

"Six, seven, eight, niiine--"

Oh, yeah. Portalling fell under the 'Unspoken Rules But You Still Have To Follow Them Or Else You're Screwed'. She put her hands on her knees and hunched over, panting. She had climbed, so far, 386 steps to reach the Sixth Floor.

"Ten, eleven twelve--"

Gritting her teeth she sprinted down the hallway, casting a _huge_ shadow down the corridor, Kingdom Hearts looming at her through the entirely glass wall on the other side. Cripes, where was it...?

"THIRTEEN!" Demyx yelled, his voice audible even from five floors below. "Ready or not, here I come!"

Naminé groaned; Xaldin's door was locked. Darn. Nobody would even _dare_ to look for her there--it was the perfect hiding place. She whipped around and caught a flash of blonde hair--Larxene, apparently, had been thinking of the same thing.

"It's locked!" Naminé whined. Larxene growled. "Unlock it, Larx!"

Number Twelve immediately drew out a kunai and set on slipping it between the door and wall; intending to saw right through the lock. However, she didn't expect (neither did Naminé) that the Whirlwind Lancer had installed multiple locks on the door, probably to keep people from hiding inside (he _had_ caught wind of how his quarters have been declared hide-and-seek hotspots).

Hissing, the blonde retracted her kunai. "No choice, we have to portal in--"

"Gah! No!" Naminé sprung once more to her feet. Demyx had just come up on the stairs and had already spotted the two of them.

"No fair!" she yelled, running back down the stairs, Larxene right at her heels. "HOME FREE!"

Axel suddenly hurtled in front of them as they sprinted for the bust of Xemnas which served as their home base (and, conveniently, as a paperweight, a whiteboard, a display stand of necklaces, a display stand for Roxas' Keychains, a perch for Zexion's pet falcon, and tons of more useful things than just being a boring old testament to the Superior's amazing hairstyle), Demyx screaming his voice out gleefully.

Naminé hurled herself forward; she had _no _intention of spending the next few hours searching for Nobodies in the Castle That Never Was. Her fingers brushed the bust, followed by Larxene's, followed by Axel's, which meant...

"Aww, Roxie! You're It!" Axel laughed, slapping a very dejected Thirteen on the back.

Roxas stomped around, lips set in a pout, clearly not liking being It.

It was plain old-fashioned hide-and-seek, the way Somebody children played it. However, they turned an ordinary game into a training device; it _was_ pretty hard getting around the Castle without using the Corridors--this place _was_ built with portalling in mind. Whatever. Organization XIII hardly broke a sweat doing just that (running aimlessly along corridors that seemed to go nowhere in order to escape getting tagged)...Naminé almost hyperventilated. Gah.

Which made her wonder _why_ exactly had Demyx suggested they play this stupid game... Cripes, she was leaving tomorrow, and _this_ was what she was doing...?

Childish, yes, but actually fun, she thought. Might be a pretty good way to keep her newly memorized memories intact through six long months of separation.

"Okay! I'm going to start counting now!" Roxas' voice said grumpily, burying his eyes in a black sleeve as he leant against the nearest pillar. "You'd better make this worth my while..._or else_," he warned in a tone of voice saying that his _or else_ meant a painful training session with his Keyblades. Thirteen was particularly touch today, Naminé realized. She stared at him as he shuffled his feet--he was wearing the necklace she gave him.

"Xemnas, Xigbar..."

She spun around; Demyx, Axel, and Larxene had all vanished. She could hear receding footsteps; those guys were _fast_. Which reminded her, she still had to find a hiding spot--

"Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus--"

Gah! Naminé! Run and hide!

Whirling around she ran off, mind frantically working as she did. What floor? What room? What closet? What bathroom? What the _hell_?

"Zexion, Saïx--"

Number seven already, and she still hadn't found the place! She's opened the wrong doors at least four times already (the first having stumbled onto Roxas' fluffy bedroom slippers horde, all in shades of cheery yellow or cerulean blue, the second being full of a certain berserker's ruined claymores, the third containing all the cellular phones Demyx had went through with, all of which were waterlogged (machinery and Demyx never really worked together that well), and the fourth being a bathroom in which she had actually caught a snatch of Marluxia singing--never would she look at the brunette the same way again), and she's gone through at least eight flights of stairs.

"Axel, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia--"

"I got it!" She yelled happily. She congratulated herself on finding _such_ a suitable place. Clapping her hands gleefully, she sprinted down the white corridor once again.

_... from ..._

"...Larxene, _Roxas_! Ready or not, I'm going to hunt you guys _down_!"

Well, that wasn't exactly how it was supposed to be said, but what the heck. It _was_ a pain in the butt, anyway, to be stuck as It. Roxas huffed, tearing his sleeve from his eyes as he set to work finding the others.

He didn't exactly _want_ to join this stupid game. Okay, so it wasn't that stupid... but it was supposedly the last game they'll play together for a long time. It _was_ no fun playing with only Demyx' gleeful laughter ringing in your ears, thankyouverymuch.

He only didn't want to get reminded that tomorrow, they were leaving. Axel, Marluxia, Larxene, and her. They were leaving, and coming back in half a year. Cripes, that sucked, especially when the ones who were leaving were Nobodies he actually _liked_. It left him feeling more alone than ever.

"G_uuuuu_yyys! Where _aarre_ youuu?" he sang out, prowling past corridors, ears straining to hear any indication of movement.

Roxas huffed and pouted once again, with only the white walls witness to his foolishness. Gritting his teeth, he stopped walking for a moment to collect his thoughts, leaning against a random pillar. It was getting hard to concentrate, knowing that they would get split from each other in less than twenty-four hours.

His hand automatically went up to his neck where he fingered the cool metal of Naminé's cross--he'd taken to wearing it everywhere, only taking it off whenever he had to take a shower (he didn't want it to get wet, and he heard from Vexen that water tarnishes silver, and the silver polish he had bought off the Nobody Shopping Network had gone MIA, most probably taken by a Xemnas intent on making his _silver_ hair extra sparkly--but that's just Roxas' opinion). He didn't even take it off when he slept--it should come as no wonder when number Thirteen would be found Faded one morning, strangled by the simple silver chain.

Whatever. He likes the cross (it's seriously cool and makes a statement at the same time), and he loves the one who gave it to him.

_He doesn't want her to go, not now, not when they'd just found each other._

Roxas whipped around; that was the faint but most definitely the metallic _clang_ of a chakram and a kunai meeting together forcefully. He chuckled as he crept stealthily towards the disturbance. Axel and Larxene most probably thought of the same place to hide, and each were now forcing the other to find _his_ or _her_ own hiding place.

As usual, he was right.

"_I_ found this place first!" Larxene's voice hissed from behind a _huge_ Nobody symbol mounted in front of the Hall of Empty Melodies.

"Uh! Who _told_ you you owned this place?" Axel hissed right back.

A kunai suddenly shot from behind the symbol, driving itself into the Hall's white wall with an audible _thud_.

"Now look what you did!" Axel's irritated voice said. "All we need now is a huge sign saying 'Eight and Twelve aren't hiding here, nope, they aren't, believe us.'"

"Shut up!"

Grinning, Roxas peered around the symbol. "Found ya!"

Larxene's icy blue eyes widened and she rounded on Axel immediately. "See? See! You and your big, stupid, mouth!"

The pyro took a step toward the blonde. "Me! _Hello_? Who threw the kunai?"

"Who _made_ me throw the kunai?"

"Who staked a claim on a piece of marble that's common property?"

"Who came barging in here when I _clearly_ found this place first?" Twelve spat, prodding her finger into Axel's chest.

"Who's so damn _stubborn--_"

Roxas folded his arms, bemused. The two had completely forgotten they were involved in a game of hide-and-seek and were now bickering over a silly little thing like who had claim over their now-useless hiding spot. He could watch them arguing all day (it was a primary source of entertainment for Organization XIII), but he had a game to finish. He spun around and left, leaving the two behind, still arguing back and forth.

"Who started asking stupid questions?" Larxene asked shrilly.

"Who started answering them?"

"_Gah_! I'll kill you and that smart-mouthness of yours!"

"I'd like to see you try, Sparky!"

"_Don't call me Sparky!"_

Hm. That sounded a lot like an awesome Firaga spell meeting an equally awesome Thundaga.

Whistling, Roxas went off in search of the other two.

..._what..._

Naminé giggled.

Now, Naminé is not really the giggly type of person (or in her case, Nobody), but now she really felt this was the time to either giggle or to laugh an evil, melodramatic, laugh. She is _so_ much more of a giggly than a melodramatic-ly, and she'd rather stay that way, leaving all the drama to Xemnas.

After giggling she immediately clamped a hand to her mouth, fearing that the sound might give her away. But after a few seconds she giggled openly--Roxas had no hope of finding her _here_.

She swallowed nervously; Roxas was a topic she didn't want to touch--it only reminded her that tonight at twelve midnight sharp she and the others will portal out to Castle Oblivion to stay there for _half a year_, without any contact from the other half of the Order. Hm. Roxas told her that he'd find a way to sneak in somehow without getting killed by Marluxia (who, of all the Nobodies, had been chosen to be temporary Lord of Castle Oblivion; Saïx in particular had vehement objections about the appointment (screw vehement--the Proof of Existence had been demolished almost completely)) just to see her.

Naminé squeaked as she felt warmth rapidly rise up her cheeks--he made her blush when she wasn't supposed to be able to.

That's why she's grateful for him; Roxas makes her feel all annoyed and mad and mushy and warm inside when she wasn't supposed to be feeling anything at all--she felt _loved_.

She giggled once again, waiting for number Thirteen to find her--_if_ he found her.

_...are..._

Roxas stomped, pounded, crashed, and stomped his booted feet once again. He _was_ getting frustrated, yes, he was, that's why he's got both his Keyblades out--one that looked pretty much like a very cute-y star mounted on a bar of silver (and with a matching star-fruit Keychain--gah), and one that looked straight out of a dark and scary castle, complete with the demon-wing handle and the intricately crafted 'blade', with a Keychain shaped like a crown. Hm. He often wondered if his Keyblades had names--he often wondered about a lot of things.

He'd ask Naminé,but he _still can't find her_.

He found Demyx hiding in one of Luxord's lockers; a noise that sounded very much like something collapsing had drawn him to the white closet. When he opened it, there a Demyx buried under an avalanche of decks (nos. 245-345, not all waterproof, there's a certain number Ten who's going to be very pissed later) grinned up at him before yelling 'HOME FREE', and he sprinted out of the decks with an agility that rivaled Larxene's when Axel was chasing her.

His eyebrows furrowed; that was two hours ago.

Did he say already that he couldn't find Naminé?

_...you..._

A flaxen-haired girl leant slightly against the white wall, her chest heaving up and down in steady, soft breaths, hands clasped over her abdomen.

Naminé had already fallen asleep, and didn't hear Roxas call out her name.

_...**h i d i n g**..._

"Where are you, Nam?" Roxas screamed. It had been no less than five hours since the game started, and there was still no sign of the girl. All sorts of thoughts on what might have happened to her ran through his thoroughly bewildered mind (from Naminé had just forgotten they were actually playing hide-and-seek, to Naminé getting mauled by a Slayer (he shivered involuntarily; Slayers were under _his_ control), to Naminé lying on a bloody heap on the cold white marble floor, to Naminé Fading--). Happy thoughts! Roxas! Happy thoughts!

When you're worried about someone you deeply care for, Roxas learned, it was very hard to think of something else.

"_Naminé!_" he shouted once again; loud enough to be heard throughout the Castle--still no reply.

Argh.

He whipped around a corner, his footsteps frantic now, not really looking where he was going.

Roxas skidded to a stop and stared in awe. He had unknowingly stumbled into Xigbar's special training room, designed especially for snipers like him. It was a room filled entirely with mirrors--some one way, some distorted, some normal, some designed in such a way that Roxas didn't really want to look into the mirror.

More importantly, every single one reflected an asleep girl, curled up against a wall.

Laughing, he called out her name once more. "Naminé?"

She stirred, sitting up and rubbing sleep from her eyes. Naminé looked around her, slightly lost, before focusing on him. _All _of her reflections focused on him. Roxas, for some reason, felt extremely nervous at having so many mirror images of _her_ scrutinizing him.

"Ro_xie_! Finally!" her voice echoed across the confined spce of the training room. It confused Roxas even more--behind _which_ mirror was she hiding?

"Naminé? Where are you?"

"Nuh_uh_ Roxas...you'll have to find me. That's why it's called hide and _seek_, isn't it?"

"But there's got to be hundreds of mirrors in this place!" he whined, restraining the urge to stomp his feet.

She laughed softly. "Better start looking then."

He groaned. _Why_ do girls have to be so darn _stubborn_?

_...really..._

"Wrong one!" Naminé giggled, and she heard the now-familiar sound of glass shattering into tiny pieces. Roxas had both Keyblades out and was breaking every mirror that didn't have her behind it. So far, he had enough bad luck for 721 years--but who's counting? Bad luck didn't affect Nobodies, anyway.

"Na-mi-_né!"_ he whined once again as he broke two mirrors at once. Xigbar's going to be pissed off as _hell_ when he sees what Roxas had done. But the boy would probably point a finger at _her_--she was the one who chose to hide here in the first place.

Whatever. Roxas looked royally annoyed now.

"Come _on_ Roxas...you can find me..." she whispered to herself.

"Nam?"

"Yeah?"

Thirteen scratched his head before shattering another mirror. "What was my Other's name again? Sky?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's Sora...I've told you that at least twenty times before, you know."

"Still..._hey!_ I have another question!"

Naminé sighed for the inevitable. Roxas seemed to see her as an encyclopedia of sorts when it came to Nobody matters. But then again, who _could_ really expect the Organization to give a non-cryptic answer? Maybe that's why he always chose to ask _her_, not them.

"How come your name's Naminé?"

"What kind of a stupid question is that?"

He groaned. "I mean, why's your name not Kaxiri or Kairix or Xirika or something? Why did you get such a seriously cool name of your _own_? While me...Roxas is just Sora with an X in it!"

"And when you take out X from your name," she paused, "It also spells out _Rosa_!"

"Yeah--_hey! that's pretty mean!_"

She laughed and closed her eyes, hunching over cross-legged once more. "Naminé's not much different from Kairi, Roxas. My name means _wave_, while hers means _sea_...I was born of her heart...see? It fits very nicely. And Kaxiri sounds pretty grating to the ear."

"I thought so," he whispered right into her ear.

She snapped her eyes open and jerked forward--Roxas had crept up behind her while she was explaining. The little sneak had probably used her voice as a homing signal! "Ro_xas_!"

"Nami_né!_" He drawled, putting an arm around her neck and pulling her back, making the both of them collapse on the floor, laughing.

Roxas sat up, breathless with laughter. It _was_ a good feeling--especially when he knew he wasn't even supposed to be able to _laugh_. Naminé leant against him, his arm around her shoulder as she gripped his other hand tightly.

"I wish we could stay like this," she said quietly.

The corners of his mouth twitched in a smile. "Don't worry--I'll come visit."

"You wish!"

He sighed. Roxas matched Marluxia in battle; he probably outstripped Eleven in training performance. But Roxas was never one for covert missions--he always somehow ended up stomping on whatever surface he was on when he got frustrated. It _was_ going to be a lot of hard work to sneak in. Which made him wonder--_what_ were they doing in that Castle, anyway? "I'll find a way."

Naminé rubbed the palm of his hand. "I'm counting on that."

"I know!" he exclaimed excitedly, sitting up straight and making Naminé's head slide off his shoulder.

"What?" she said indignantly, shooting him a glare.

Grinning, he gently shook his hand free of hers and summoned his starry Keyblade(while wishing it _had_ some other name than starry Keyblade), with the seriously starry Keychain hanging from it. Concentrating he detached the star from the Keyblade, making it fade away slowly. He studied the Keychain in his hand--it was _really_ a star-fruit, something that he had never thought could exist.

"It's a paopu fruit..." Naminé said softly.

"A what?"

"Paopu. It's a fruit that's supposed to intertwine the destinies of whoever shares it."

His eyebrows furrowed. Destiny? He never really believed in destiny. "Whatever. I'm giving this to you," he said, placing it tenderly on her open palm and curling her fingers around it.

She stared at him. "B-but! You can't summon your Oathkeeper if you don't have its Keychain!"

Roxas tilted his head. "Oathkeeper?" he asked curiously.

"That's the name of your Keyblades," she answered exasperatedly. "Oathkeeper and Oblivion."

"Huh?"

"It's a long, _long_ story..."

He shook his head, placing a finger on the girl's pale lips. "You can explain that to me when I come see you. _And_ I'll get my...Oathkeeper back when I come to you..."

"Hahah, some motivation you've got."

"...I promise I'll get it back from you, Naminé."

She smiled happily. "Thank you."

_... our... **g o o d b y e**?..._

Xemnas stared impassively as Organization XIII converged; standing in a circle under Kingdom Hearts' light. It was time.

The portal stood open, beckoning. He had taken the liberty of opening the Corridors to the shortest route possible--they were running out of time. The Keyblade Master was wandering the transition world where he had Castle Oblivion built at this very moment.

Not trusting the ones he would send (Marluxia the very least--never mind that the brunette had lent him conditioner a long time ago), he had also secretly assigned Lexaeus and Zexion to keep watch over Eight, Eleven, Twelve, and Naminé.

Speaking of them. They were entering the portal now--Axel still arguing with Larxene, Marluxia following behind them huffily...

"Naminé!" he spoke, searching the place for the pale blonde memory witch. He found her in a place a Nobody would be least likely to be found.

In a warm embrace with Roxas.

If Xemnas had emotions he'd smile--he only succeeded in a faint twitching of the corners of his mouth. The girl was lucky to have someone who cares for her, even with only borrowed emotions.

"Naminé!" he called once again. She broke away from number Thirteen, smiling and crying at the same time.

"Bye Roxas! See you soon!" she said, waving. "Bye everyone who's not coming with us! Haha...!"

Grudgingly, happily, bemusedly, stoically, whatever-ly, the remaining members of Organization XIII waved back at her.

"See you soon, Naminé, take care of youself," Roxas said in a very quiet voice that slightly shook. "Don't worry--time would fly!"

"Yeah." Giving one final wave (and a flying kiss--Xemnas blinked, feeling his eyelid twitch), she spun on her heels and sprinted through the portal, the Corridors closing behind her.

The Superior watched as all his subordinates either walked or portalled out--and his gaze fell on a stoic-faced Roxas.

"If you only knew how soon it might take," he whispered to himself, watching impassively once more as the youngest Nobody portalled out. "Soon is not the word for it, Roxas. It never will be."

With that, he portalled out.

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There! Finished! I need to sleep now...

Read and review, please! Flamers can go ahead!

Ja ne!


	7. Forgotten

**A/N: **I usually do abrupt endings, but what the heck. Beware: extremely long chapter.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Kingdom Hearts, the stories that I write won't be called fanfiction; it'll be called the _plot_ of Kingdom Hearts.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g**

**----------------------**

_faded memories;_

_reconstructed memories--_

_A dream--a dream of you_

_In a world without you._

_why have you forgotten?_

_about me?_

_about **us**?_

**_Plick_**. The pencil curved downward shaply, marring what otherwise would have been a face.

Naminé set it down and bit her lip, staring across the white room at the massive glass globe.

A brunette shouting at a blonde. A star-shaped keychain on the white floor.

Her job was done.

She stared at the white paper in front of her. The face was all too familiar, but she could never seem to be able to place _his_ name. All she remembered was one and only one name, for that matter.

_So**ra**._

Sighing, she once again flipped to the back of her sketchpad, going through page after colored page of crude drawings--all looked like it had been done by a preschooler. Now, Naminé was sure she had never seen a preschooler before, but somehow, she remembered _being_ one...strange.

Ah, here it was.

With trembling fingers she drew out a slip of folded paper, and smoothed it out with her pale hands. And once again, she bowed her head, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall.

It was a sketch of a boy; he looked so much like Sora--except he had blonde, unruly hair, and eyes that were a slightly darker shade of blue. Naminé did not understand _why_ this drawing made her feel so _sad_ when she wasn't supposed to be feeling at all. She certainly did not have the aptitude to produce such a likeness, yet _there_ was her writing, pushed into a corner, her name spelled out in precise letters.

_You're my sanctuary._

_By Naminé._

She had no idea how her name got there; she did not know _anything_ at all before Castle Oblivion. Marluxia said they found her; a broken girl lying unconscious in one of Oblivion's rooms, mind blank as her drawing paper.

Naminé was a witch, Larxene told her once. Well...it _was_ true; her...abilities lay not in the art of fighting, but in the subtle art of rechaining memories. That was the only thing that was keeping her alive--if she did not do as she was told to do so, she--and that boy, Sora--would be killed.

Sora was something of a Keyblade prodigy; he had unfailing enthusiasm for everything he did, exactly the opposite of her.

He was colorful--rich mahogany, scarlet-flushed cheeks, metallic silver Keyblade. She was pale--almost translucent skin, bleached hair, white sundress.

At least their eyes were both blue; his reflected the sky; hers reflected the calm ocean.

But as she stared at the sketch in front of her...she had a vague feeling she was missing something.

Or someone.

His eyes, this nameless boy, had the intensity of an ocean in the midst of a storm.

She bent her head and let her tears flow. She _hated_ not being able to remember. She had tried _everything_, from banging her head repeatedly on the white marble table (which only resulted in a very bruised forehead and a very furious Marluxia), to trying to rechain her _own_ memories--delving deep inside, just like she was doing with Sora's.

There was a hitch...she learned that trying to muddle your own mind was something _not_ to do, she learned _that_ the hard way. She found Axel, the fiery redhead sort of overprotective brother she had (and really, the only civil one among them Organization), hovering over her worriedly one day. She was shocked to learn that she had been out of action for two months--which made for another furious Marluxia and an overly interested Vexen--just because she had dared to rearrange her _own_ memories.

Needless to say, she never tried said stunt again.

So she spent her days drawing crude drawings, rearranging already perfectly okay memories (of a boy she had never met before in her entire life--and yet she had a feeling she _had_ already), listening to long-winded lectures, and existing as a Nobody in general.

She hissed irritably, folding the sketch of the blonde boy up and sliding it carefully among the leaves of her sketchbook. He wore the same pitch-black coat Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen and Axel always wore. Maybe he had something to do with them...?

Naminé had tried asking them once...only Axel gave her a coherent answer. And it wasn't even _that_ clear.

"He's the key; _your_ key," he said cryptically before engaging her in a game of tic-tac-toe (in which, she was proud to say, she kicked his butt), waving aside her further questions.

Arrrgh. If only she could _remember!_

-

- - - - - - - - -

-

"Hey, I heard Larxene's dead," Demyx said offhandedly, leaning back into his chair as he munched noisily on somewhat burnt toast.

Roxas, however, spit out the water that he had been drinking unceremoniously, spraying number Nine with water.

"Get a grip, Rox," he wrinkled his nose.

"De_myx!_ Larxene's dead, and you're just acting like it was nothing!" he exclaimed unbelievingly, staring at the mullet-haired teen.

He shrugged. "I could never feel sad, anyway."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Oh? But I thought you could _remember_ how to?"

"Still...it's not the same."

Sighing, Roxas set the glass down on the white (as usual, white, well, more white, since he had just scrubbed said countertop with a nice combination of Marluxia's fabric conditioner and industrial-strength bleach) kitchen counter. "Who did her in?"

Demyx grimaced. "It's that Sora kid."

His eyebrows furrowed; Roxas had taken to wearing a scowl more often these days. "My Other?"

"Yeah--last time I heard, he's killing them all off---"

Roxas suddenly stood up, knocking over his white (not marble this time, but cheap plastic--much more easier to replace in case a certain berserker went, well, _berserk_ over the scrambled eggs) chair. He gritted his teeth; Xemnas had kept Castle Oblivion's happenings from him long enough.

Demyx stared at him, sapphire blue eyes wide. "What?"

Huffing, Roxas stomped around the kitchen counter, rummaging for a pocket knife. Hey, you couldn't be too careful. "I'm going to pay Oblivion a long-due visit."

"Hell no! You can't!" number Nine said fearfully. "Uhm, who _knows_ what Superior would do if he found out? And you don't have a chance against Marluxia with only one Keyblade!"

"Sora kicked Larxene's butt to oblivion with only one," Roxas reminded him, trying to decide whether to bring a spork or not. Hm. It might come in handy; with Organization XIII, you never know.

Demyx shook his head resignedly. "It's your own funeral."

"It's not like I'm going to demolish that Castle or something," he said flatly, pocketing the Swiss knife (the ceramic handle was somewhat burned--Roxas had once used it to jimmy Axel's locked cabinet, and the pyro hadn't taken the gesture in the brightest of moods) and the spork, leaving the pocket knife (that actually belonged to Xigbar; he once used it to trim a particularly bad hangnail--ew) and pushing the cutlery drawer shut. "Like I said, I'm just going to visit. It's almost half a year, anyway, and still no word from them."

"We're not _supposed_ to get word from them," he pointed out, yawning widely.

"Whatever..."

"Naminé can take care of herself, you know."

Roxas cringed. He _had_ promised he would visit, but Xemnas had kept very close tabs on him ever since they left. This was his chance...the Superior was off doing recon in Hollow Bastion (but Roxas had a sneaky feeling it was only another, more serious rephrasal of 'spying on that old geezer that was my Other's mentor'), and left the Castle for a short while.

He imagined how Naminé would react if he suddenly appeared in Oblivion. Knowing the girl's disposition, she'd probably slap him. Twice. Then she'd probably kiss him. Yeah.

Okay, hormones surging. But kissing was probably a good thing. Yeah.

"...I still have to check up on her."

Demyx raised an eyebrow. "Don't you trust that Axel would take care of her?"

"As much as he's my best friend...Axel's a Nobody, and Nobodies are inclined to...betray very easily."

"Tough," he puffed out, leaning back into his chair, and putting his feet up on the immaculately white counter, ignoring Roxas' scandalized glare. Hey! He _had _ hand-scrubbed that!

"Yeah. I'll be back before dinner..."

"Suit yourself," he laced his fingers behind his head and yawned once again. "Oh, and while you're there, could you _please_ tell Axel to bring back the gloves he borrowed _un_burnt?"

Roxas nodded, amused, and watched as Demyx fell asleep in a record time of six seconds. Calling his Oblivion Keyblade in one hand, and his trusty Swiss knife (which contains a six-inch, four-inch, and two-inch titanium blades, a can opener, a bottle opener, a pair of scissors, a screwdriver, a lighter, a lockpick, a paintbrush, a pencil, a metal ruler, a string of paper clips, a hair straightener, a ceramic curler, and many other useful things suitable for the modern Nobody--not in that order, of course) in the other, he portalled out.

He grinned. Finally! A mini-reunion with Naminé would do good for his angsty nonexistence.

-

- - - - - - - - - -

-

Axel stalked through the halls of Castle Oblivion, feeling pretty depressed as he set random things on fire (like that door that led to Sora's Halloweentown, and that fluffy earmuffs Marluxia had left lying around). Larxene had kicked the bucket; she had gotten an awesome butt-kicking from a kid with an oversized key.

Not that _this_ is the first time he had seen one; he had a Keyblade Wielder for a best buddy.

He walked the now-familiar path to Naminé's room, checking up on her as he habitually did every three hours or so. Sora was still somewhere on the tenth floor, or so had Vexen told him. Anyway, this was the thirteenth floor...the brunette had a lot more to go.

Axel scratched his head absentmindedly...planning the next thing to do to stop this chain of betrayals. Stupid Marluxia, thinking he could ever take over the Organization. Even stupider...he had grossly underestimated Sora's strength. Even the Riku Replica Vexen made was no match for him.

The kid was good with swinging that Keyblade--Axel knew that firsthand.

Sighing, he stopped in front of an unmarked white door, and knocked. Now, _why_ was he knocking, when he could just portal in?

Out of habit.

Roxas had entrusted Naminé's safety to Axel; and the blonde had cautioned him that the girl _hated_ it when someone barged into her room without warning (a few black-eye incidents and one bloody broken nose was testament to that, Naminé was _strong_ when she was mad). Well, the old Naminé, that was.

"Come in, Axel," a clear, thin voice filtered out. What was once a strong, teasing voice, capable of giggling and screaming in a matter of seconds. What _was_ once.

He turned the silver doorknob and pushed the door open, revealing a frail blonde girl, occupying the solitary chair in her blindingly white room. Naminé was used to Axel's daily routine of checking up on her; in fact, if he wasn't mistaken, the blonde looked forward to seeing him.

"Hey, Nam," he raised a gloved hand in greeting. He dearly hoped that Naminé would greet him in her once-usual way--either glomp him, or tackle him to the ground, or just _grin_ up at him. However, Naminé had forgotten how to grin a long, long time ago.

She smiled weakly, the best display of emotion she could manage. "Hello, Axel."

Naminé, in a nutshell, had forgotten.

Well, at first, when Marluxia briefed her on the current (ongoing--still no happy ending in sight) mission, Naminé had vehemently objected. But she relented, once the brunette-haired flower boy threatened her with the one threat he _knew_ she'd never refuse.

Roxas.

Marluxia said he'd kill Sora if Naminé didn't do what he wanted--the blonde couldn't care less if Sora died (since they felt no remorse; conscience was something that held the minority in a Nobody's thinking), but if Sora kicked the bucket...Roxas, as his Nobody, would fade away with him.

She didn't want that. Of course, who in their right mind would want to be the indirect cause of their loved (never mind if they can't feel) ones' untimely death? So she grudgingly conceded, telling herself that after this was all over, she's do everything to right her wrongs.

It _was_ supposed to have a happy ending, but...Nobodies weren't _supposed_ to have happy endings.

Axel looked on curiously at the intricately crafted metal set down on the table in front of Naminé. Huh? "What's that?"

She shook her head gracefully. "I don't know. It seems to have some sort of...link with Sora; I made a replica of this keychain, and for some reason, everytime I pick it up, this huge _key_ appears," Naminé said softly, fingering the attached paopu-ornament.

It clicked. What Naminé had in front of her was no ordinary silvercraft; it was Roxas' Oathkeeper. Oh.

"It's unusual...I feel like I'm missing something."

Axel stared at her. HELL YEAH. YOU'RE MISSING A HUGE CHUNK OF GRAY MATTER CALLED MEMORY. Uh. Okay.

No-one had expected that once Naminé began reworking Sora's memories that she would lose hers as well. In a span of one month, she had completely forgotten everything before she had arrived here, and Marluxia took advantage of her ignorance--feeding her half-truths and whole lies. Axel looked on helplessly; after all, _Marluxia_ was put in charge. Hmm. He's going to have a nice chat with the Superior after this was all over. Yeah.

After this was all over...most likely, Roxas would be pissed.

Pissed off might be a massive understatement. But hey! He promised Roxas he'd take care of Naminé's safety--he never said anything about her memories or something about that. Hm. Maybe they should have written it down on paper, and had it signed by a lawyer.

He watched, fascinated, as Naminé waved a hand over a blank space of table, her other hand grasping the star-keychain tightly. An exact replica of the yellow fruit appeared in a sparkly, glittery way.

She frowned. "I don't know how I did that. I don't even know _why_ I have this keychain," she said helplessly, wringing her pale hands. Axel wanted so much to yell right then and now 'YOUR BOYFRIEND GAVE YOU THAT, YOU AMNESIAC ANEMIC GIRL', but he decided against it. Aside from the fact that Marluxia would most likely try his best to decapitate him, Naminé would ask him even more questions, and questions were something that Axel didn't like. She'd probably stare at him blankly as he tried to explain what had happened. Gah. He could feel a headache coming on.

"Uhm. Axel?" he felt a tug on his sleeve. Naminé's cerulean blue eyes stared at him, and if he wasn't mistaken, she was giving him the Look that they had once tried in vain to copy. Argh. She reminded him of his best friend. Argh. "If you wouldn't mind, could you please give this to the Riku Replica?" she held out the newly-created keychain. "I think he broke his first one..."

Axel stared at her shrewdly, and muttered under his breath as he took the star from her hand. "It's not the only one that's broken..."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, nothing, Naminé. See you later," he sighed, shuffling out of the room. If he hurried, he might still have time to convince Marluxia to stop this madness. Grimacing, he closed the door with an audible click, and looked up, star glinting brightly amongst his gloved fingers.

Uhhh...oh. Oh hell no. This was not happening.

He looked up right into Roxas.

"Hey! Axel!" he said brightly, running into him and hugging him tightly. "Long time no see!"

OH HELL NO. THIS IS HORRIBLE TIMING. Something told him he was going to need one hell of a dosage of painkillers.

-

- - - - - - - - - -

-

"Feh, you sap, geroff me," Axel growled good-naturedly, managing to pry Roxas off. He grinned, and the pyro grinned back. Of course, when you hadn't seen your best friend for a year, you'd probably do the same (which was act like complete idiots).

"I am not a sap!" he pouted, stomping his foot in the way he always did when he was frustrated. All he needed now was to roll around on the white marble floor and throw a tantrum. Well, he had already tried it once--and he found out Demyx was _so_ much more of a whiner that him. "Sooo...Axel, how're things going around here?"

The redhead stared at him suspiciously. "You _do _know you're not exactly allowed to take a quiet, leisurely stroll around here, don't you?"

"Oh c'mon, I wanted to visit for ages, but the Superior won't get off my case--"

Was it just Roxas, or was Axel tiptoeing discreetly away from the door he had just closed? Grinning evilly, he reached out to open the door, and quick as a flash, a gloved hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Managing to raise an eyebrow and glare at the same time, he stared curiously at the Flurry of Dancing Flames.

"Why don't I give you a tour of this place?" He said airily, averting his gaze. Oh yeah. As if _that_ wouldn't make Roxas suspicious. Noo, it wouldn't.

"What's up with you?" Roxas asked, giving Axel the Look he had so missed doing. The pyro flinched.

"Your safety. S-A-F-E-T-Y," he answered disapprovingly. "Got it memorized?"

Thirteen bobbed his head wordlessly; when Axel said something that contained the phrase 'Got it memorized', it was better not to argue--you could end up burnt in places you've never dreamed of.

"Speaking of safety..." Roxas looked around the hallway, "Can I see Naminé...now?"

Was it just him, or did Axel just blanch? Not only blanch, but turn a very unnatural shade of pale sickly white? His teal eyes darted around the hall; looking everywhere except at Roxas. He laughed, "Ro_xas_, you're not blind, of _course_ you can see Na--"

Roxas gave him the Look once again, and Axel actually squirmed. "Axel, you know what I mean."

"Aah--"

He took a step forward. "Is...something wrong?"

"Aah--"

At that very moment, as Roxas stared at his best friend's almost frightened expression, he felt something he had not felt for a long, long time.

Fear.

He started breathing erratically. "N-Naminé's okay, isn't she?" he asked frantically.

Axel tilted his head. "Technically..."

Roxas' gaze strayed to the door Axel had oh-so-subtly pulled him away from--and he knew at once it was Naminé's room. Gah. _What the hell happened to her?_ Gritting his teeth, he sprinted for the door, ignoring the pyro's sudden yell.

He wrenched the door open, and sighed in relief. Naminé was, as usual, sitting in front of a white marble table, pencil poised to draw over paper. He heard Axel skid to a stop behind him, panting. Roxas grinned and looked over his shoulder. "Axel...I really thought something was wrong here."

He winced nervously. "Actually, there is."

"Huh?"

"A-axel...who is he?"

Roxas frowned and turned back to face the blonde girl. She was clutching her pencil tightly in icy fingers, while her other hand was gripping the table. She had on an expression of fear and apprehension, and she had shrunk back visibly when he turned around. He alternated a helpless gaze between Naminé and Axel.

And it occured to him...the little pranksters! He grinned. "Very funny, you guys, ha ha ha."

Axel stared at him, and shook his head slowly.

Roxas snorted. "You can't fool me."

"Axel! Who _is_ he?" Naminé said shrilly, portalling out of her chair and appearing behind Axel, her pale white hands clutching his sleeve.

He frowned once again. "Guys, this is not funny anymore."

"Roxas..." the pyro said softly, staring at the floor. "Do you really think I'd play _this_"--he wriggled his arm slightly, and Naminé gave a muffled cry--"kind of joke on you?"

"Roxas..." she whispered, as if testing his name on her lips for the first time. Roxas' resolve crumbled when he realized it probably was. Trembling, his shoulders slumped and he fell on his knees.

"No way...Axel!" he said through gritted teeth, looking up at his best friend, struggling not to look at the girl holding his arm tightly. "How?"

He sighed. "We had no idea that Naminé was created when Kairi's heart left Sora's body. So technically, she's Sora's Nobody--but that's just wrong, so we paid no attention to that. But when she started to break the chains of Sora's memories..." he trailed off, leaving Roxas to finish his sentence for him.

"...she was breaking hers as well..." his voice choked up in his throat.

"Huh? What?" Naminé was saying, stepping timidly from behind Axel.

"And _why_ did you have to rechain my Other's memories in the first place?" he exclaimed angrily.

Axel backed away slowly. "Hey, hey! It was Marluxia's idea! He wanted to betray the Organi--" he froze.

Now, freezing in place was something that should never be done in a Castle that was occupied by extremely deadly assassins who believed that black would never go out of style. Roxas, as much as he was distraught right now, stared at Axel curiously. He strained to listen, and picked up the sounds of a very nasty fight in the floors below.

"Naminé," Axel said in a tight voice. "If you want to save Sora, you have to come with me and make him see the truth."

Roxas stared.

Axel averted his eyes and held out a gloved hand to the blonde girl. "He needs you to save him."

Naminé nodded. Roxas stared at her has she brushed past him--she had no idea who he was.

Oh, cripes, that hurt.

Eight walked over to him, leaving Naminé huddled against the doorframe, her cerulean eyes wide and fearful.

"Roxas...she loves Sora now; somewhere in her ruined mind she thinks _he's_ you, and she's willing to give up everything, even her existence, for your Other, just as she would have done for you. I'm sorry it had to come to this--it would've been better if you hadn't visited."

Stunned, Roxas watched, unmoving, as they portalled out.

His best friend. His _girl_friend. Portalling out, probably to their deaths at the hands of his illustrious Other.

This. Was. Not. Happening.

Gritting his teeth, he got to his feet, taking in Naminé's white (blindingly white--hurts to look at) room. He spotted his Oathkeeper Keychain, lying innocently on the white marble. As soon as he touched it the Oathkeeper flared to life, its metal cool and light in his hand.

His eyes narrowed; pinned underneath the brilliant yellow star was a folded piece of paper. One look, and he knew what it was--he had dreamed of her and this piece of white paper so many times before. He slipped it protectively into his pocket, and summoned his Oblivion Keyblade.

Xemnas was probably back at the Castle That Never Was right now. Just in time; Roxas thought it was time to have a little chat with his Superior.

Axel won't let Naminé die, that's for sure. But...the Naminé he loved, the Naminé he knew...she was gone.

-

- - - - - - - - - - -

-

"Pfft," Naminé groaned, wincing as she stretched out her arms, cramped from hovering over a keyboard for the better part of the day.

It didn't help when she had to do this _every single day_ for months now. Sora's memories was something like an immensely difficult jigsaw puzzle--she didn't know that she had done _that_ much damage to the Keyblade Master.

"Walk around for a while," Riku's voice said behind her, and she smiled gratefully at the silver-haired Wielder. She had often wondered how he saw with that stupid blindfold on...well, aside from the fact that it looked kinda cool and mysterious...it served no other purpose. Huh. Boys. She'll never understand them.

She yawned. "Can do, Riku."

He chuckled, and portalled out of the pod chamber.

She gingerly put weight on one blue sandal, and her leg reflexively had the sensation of pins and needles as the blood rushed back. Gah. Piecing together memories would kill her someday--not that she was alive, anyway.

Taking a deep breath, she started walking around the pod, eager to see the subject of her hard work.

There in the middle of the bud shaped thingamajig (DiZ had yet to think of a name; something that was technologically impressive yet aesthetic at the same time), floated a boy--fifteen years of age, serenely asleep (and would remain that way, unless she got his mind together). Soft, spiky mahogany tresses swayed in a magically-induced force field. She sighed.

Sora...

And with that name came the memory of the gold-haired boy that stumbled through her door so very long ago, back in Castle Oblivion. She had told no-one that she had met him, for Axel had cautioned her not to...Hm. She wondered where the cheery pyro was now--he disappeared together with Castle Oblivion.

Roxas. That was a nice name.

And he was the only one missing in Sora's scattered memories.

Somehow, she felt sad, because once this boy--Roxas had merged with Sora, he'd be bound forever.

It's the fate of a Nobody, and she knew, that one day...she'll share the same fate as him.

-

- - - - - - - - - - -

-

"Your mind's made up?"

Roxas paused, biting his lip. Hell yeah his mind was made up--there was nothing left for him here. A year--a whole year had passed since he last saw Naminé. Axel was the only one who returned from the whole Oblivion mess. It obviously pained Axel to tell his best friend that Naminé was now under the protection of the realm of light...he could never touch her, as long as he kept his disposition as the Key of Destiny.

But he'd find a way. He always does. And now he had caught wind of a challenge--a duel between him and another Wielder. Ha.

Xemnas had explicitly forbidden him contact with these...Somebodies, but Roxas couldn't control himself. Between worrying for his Naminé's safety, and wondering _why_ exactly the Organization felt the need to separate him from his Other...there wasn't a lot of self-control to go around.

He currently had a lot of questions about his existence right now.

"Why did the Keyblade choose me?" he said flatly. "I have to know."

Axel gritted his teeth audibly. "You can't turn on the Organization!"

Roxas rolled his eyes--this came from the guy who was practically the reason why Marluxia, Vexen, and Larxene were dead. He sure had a shrewd best friend.

"You get on their bad side...they'll destroy you!"

He stomped his foot one last time--he had no time for this. He craned his neck up, and he could see Memory's Skyscraper. Tacky name, but served the purpose well. He _was_ the youngest member--they'd move on if he failed. "No one would miss me," he said coldly, walking away from the redhead leaning against the brick wall.

He felt his breath hitch as he caught Axel's last words. "That's not true...I would."

He raised a sleeve and scrubbed the tears from his eyes, his footsteps lost in the pounding rain. He put his hood up.

He stopped short, his boots splashing in the puddles against the ground. He fingered the necklace Naminé had given him, and tucked it securely beneath his coat. He swore it would stay with him forever, as with the piece of paper that rustled softly in his pocket.

Pieces of memory.

In front of him, Memory's Skyscraper towered over him, and a lone figure stood at the top.

Roxas had a question.

And because of a boy he had never seen in his entire existence, Naminé wasn't there to answer it.

Nevertheless, he spoke, and asked, hoping the dark breeze of this night-bound world would carry his question to wherever she was.

"Where's Sora?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry sorry sorry for the delay! I got swamped by the massive amount of work my professors set me to do! -sobs- And also, I am very, very mad at my English prof...she gave me a barely passing grade on this essay...oh c'mon, lady! -growls-

Hmm...d'you guys think I should write the part of Roxas and Naminé's meeting shown in KHII...?

Review. It makes me very happy. c:

Flamers can go ahead...it's not good to bottle up anger, is it?


	8. Calling

**A/N: **I'm splitting their documented KH meeting in parts; if you haven't noticed, Roxas' remerging (very, very sad) takes about four hours in the game. THIS IS POST KHCoM! MASSIVE KHII **SPOILERS**.

A point about the KH2 story...I kind of don't understand. So Riku took on Ansem's form to defeat Roxas, right? But in the game it's implied that Riku, when Roxas was just about to slash him with the Oathkeeper (the memory before Roxas' last battle with Axel), knocked Roxas back, thus defeating him--while he was still Riku. So when did Riku transform to Ansem? Huh?

So in my story let's just say Riku was defeated at Memory's Skyscraper, shall we?

If you guys could help me out on this...thanks!

**Disclaimer: **No. I don't. Stop bugging me.

**--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**--------------------------**

**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g**

**--------------------------**

_I came, I saw, I conquered_

_Is that enough to get you back?_

_I tried, I failed, yet I persevered_

_Still I fell into darkness' eternal black._

_Where's Sora?_

Those were the words Roxas whispered, and miraculously, his (blindfolded! Boy, this guy sure was confident) adversary Riku heard, judging from the smirk on his face.

Pssh. All he really wanted was to talk to his Other; he only wanted to meet him! Why did Somebodies always see them Nobodies as threats? They really didn't have to fight! Hm. If this Riku thought he was just another Nobody, he was sadly mistaken.

Rain poured, as it always did, and Roxas stepped carefully through the puddles. It didn't look too good if he slipped, would it? Riku'd probably die laughing.

Neoshadow Heartless started to rise out of the blackness, sickly yellow eyes glinting with the reflection of the World That Never Was' neon lights. Maybe this Riku was no ordinary Somebody, either, to have the ability to summon Heartless.

He looked up, and saw, for the first time in his nonexistence, that the Skyscraper Billboard was working.

The Billboard was a joint construction project of Organization XIII and all the other Nobodies. How it worked, only Naminé knew, for she was the one who crafted the luminous square of light. She said in time, her woven spell would work, and they shall see the root of all this madness. Back then, Roxas had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

He squinted, and he could see the figure of a young, redheaded girl, staring up into the sky, paopu fruit in hand.

_Kairi._

He shook his head violently; this was not the time to wonder about how Kairi became the root of all this. Hm. Roxas needed the training -- he'd probabaly have to deal with his Organization brethren later. Concentrating, he summoned both his Keyblades: the angelic Oathkeeper, Keyblade of Light, and the demonic Oblivion, Keyblade of darkness. Ha. Whatever affiliation Riku had--he'd _pay_ for challenging the Key of Destiny.

Speaking of Riku...the silver-haired boy looked up, and spread out his hands. Roxas clamped his jaw tight as the rain _stopped_, and the clouds hanging above the Skyscraper spread out, revealing shooting stars tracing their fiery path across the eternal night of their home World.

Kiingdom Hearts shone down on them, and Roxas grimaced, crossing his Keyblades in a demonstration of power as light crackled back and forth the metal blades.

He blinked, and took a step back, as the outline of a heart traced through the asphalt around his feet. It took him a split second to realized that _no_, it was not a pansy girlish heart, but it was the outline of the Heartless symbol.

"Where's Sora?" he asked once again.

Riku didn't answer, just looked down amusedly, as much as his blindfold would permit him to do so.

And chaos exploded as the Heartless attacked. Pssh. Piece of cake.

It was like a dance, to Roxas, as he spun around, carving death around him. The metallic sound of his Keyblades sang in his ears, and he could almost feel Riku's disbelief in his strength. Heartless flew into the air before crumbling into dust.

Three Neoshadows sprinted across the asphalt, and jumped, in a spectacular display of agility. Of course, Roxas had much, much more agility than them--no worries. He took off, and flipped over, landing several paces behind his original position, crossing his Keyblades, almost beckoning to the Heartless.

Beckoning them to their deaths.

Roxas likes that.

As soon as they were near enough Roxas lunged, decapitating them in one fell swoop. The other Heartless seemed to take this as an invitation to attack, and they rushed forward, sprinting and jumping. He tensed, and jumped into the air himself, swinging death in the form of his Keyblades.

Throwing a Strike Raid, he realized that Riku was actually _stalling_. Well, we can't have that, can we?

He caught his Oathkeeper gracefully, and landed nimbly on his feet. In a feat of inhuman agility (what? he _was_ a Nobody), he somersaulted over to the glass front doors of Memory's Skyscraper; the silent watcher over the residents of the World That Never Was, according to the precisely-lettered sign hanging on the golden door handle.

Oh, cripes, that sign was handmade by Naminé. His resolve strengthened; he _will _get his Naminé back! He _will!_

He glared up the Skyscraper--the rain had started to fall once again, and thunderclouds made their way through the sky furiously. Riku , once again, had that seriously annoying smirk of his on his face, a look that said I KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON'T. HA. HA.Fighting the urge to yell, he crossed his Keyblades once more, and jumped. Letting his momentum carry him (like the so many times Xemnas made him run up this stupid building--he never really understood _why_ the Superior would make him do that, until now--it did come in handy.), he sprinted up the north face of the Skyscraper, wasting Heartless as he went.

Hm. It wasn't fair if Riku didn't have a weapon, right? Pssh. Like _he'd_ ever learn to wield a Keyblade properly. So Roxas threw his Oblivion Keyblade, half-hoping Riku would catch it, half-hoping that it'd hit him on the head and save Roxas a lot of trouble.

Riku jumped. The notion of the silver-haired kid being legally insane was pushed aside by the fact that he caught the Keyblade _perfectly_.

OH. HE'S A KEYBLADE MASTER TOO. Never mind. He'd still get his butt kicked.

As they passed each other, Roxas got his first good glimpse of his adversary, and Riku stared right back. His spine crawled...Riku _could_ see him, but with the power of darkness--that's why he needed the blindfold. Even Roxas hadn't gone that far with using darkness.

Roxas ran straight up, and pushed off the ridge of the Skyscraper's top, flipping over once again and racing Riku to the ground.

They both landed on the asphalt at the same time, knees bent and Keyblades held at the ready. To Roxas' surprise, the Heartless attacked--Riku didn't seem to have complete control over them. Probably the Heartless had caught whiff of Riku's own heart--the heart of a Keyblade Master. Good thing Roxas had no heart to steal.

Hiding a smug grin, he proceeded to annihilate the Neoshadows who dared attack him. He looked over his shoulder, and his eyes widened; Riku was wielding Oblivion with apparent ease and fluidity.

In no less than two minutes the asphalt in front of Memory's Skyscraper was clear, save for two cloaked figures, one holding the Keyblade of Light, the other holding the Keyblade of Darkness, staring at each other.

Pssh. As he said, piece of cake.

Both of them tensed, and Riku charged at him, Oblivion held high and deadly. Ha. His mistake--Roxas knocked Oblivion out of his hand as soon as it clashed with his upheld Oathkeeper, and he lunged, catching his Oblivion back before it hit the wall. He, once again, fought the urge to smile. Riku weaponless, him Dual-Wielding.

Now he charged, and Riku was the one who smiled as he summoned what looked very much like a Keyblade.

_Cripes_, Roxas thought as he jumped and flipped over Riku at the last moment; he had not expected _that_. He jabbed the Oblivion's point into Riku's back, but the other Wielder had whipped around, and his Keyblade sliced empty air. Roxas winced as he brought both Keyblades into an X in order to block Riku's head-on attack.

An X. A cross. Roxas suddenly became very aware of Naminé's cross cold against his chest.

_Naminé._

_Sora._

_Kairi._

_Riku._

**_Roxas_.**

Bellowing, Roxas slashed his Keyblades, throwing Riku back, staggering. Anger feeding his strength, he rushed forward, Keyblades flashing furiously. Riku could only parry as Roxas brought slash upon slash on his Keyblade.

Suddenly, Riku crouched, and Roxas toppled slightly, off balanced. The silver-haired Wielder then took this chance to swipe at Roxas' legs. Yelling, Roxas hit the asphalt, Oathkeeper and Oblivion skittering out of his reach. Riku smirked once again, and plunged his Keyblade down.

Roxas remembered that Xaldin had once done the same with him; disarming him and then jabbing a spear at him. And he remembered exactly how he defeated number Three (and not really intending to, he remembered how they all celebrated his defeat). Placing a smirk of his own on his lips, Roxas brought his booted feet up and planted them squarely on Riku's chest.

He kicked hard, and Riku went airborne for more than a few seconds before landing, hard, on the asphalt.

In the precious seconds Riku was dazed, Roxas sprinted and claimed his Keyblades back. Before Riku could stand up, Roxas had his Oathkeeper's sharp edge at his throat.

"Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?" he demanded, as if there wasn't a razor-sharp peice of metal digging onto his throat.

Pssh. Wouldn't _he_ want to know? This Riku probably had no idea that _he_ was Sora's Nobody. Hmm. Why did Riku want to challenge him in the first place?

Riku growled.

Roxas snarled drew the Oathkeeper back. "Shut up."

Before he could swipe the Oathkeeper, though, Riku knocked the angelic Keyblade away, and Roxas together with it. Like that made a difference.

As Riku advanced on him, Roxas propped himself up on his elbows, and jumped to his feet. He brought down Oblivon in one slash, and the blindfolded Wielder slammed into Memory's Skyscraper's glass doors, shattering them with a satisfying _crash_.

Panting, Roxas picked his Keyblades up, and dismissed them, tucking the Keychains into his shirt, once he realized he had _no_ pockets. As much as he won't like to admit it, his strength was spent. The Castle That Never Was loomed behind him--he could never go back there, for he was considered a traitor.

Right now, he needed a quiet place to think. And to have a little nap too; he was _tired_.

He knew just the place.

Roxas portalled out.

**----------------------**

"Pfft, DiZ, I am _not_ a computer expert!"

The mummified man shrugged. "Whose fault was it that the computer shut down, anyway?"

Naminé huffed, and collapsed down tiredly on the swiveling (not that it swiveled anymore; she'd swiveled it past the point of return) computer chair. She glared at DiZ, whose one amber eye stared stonily back. _Now_ she'd have to start _all over again_. A year's work. WASTED.

She huffed once again. All she had been doing was trying to get that particularly stubborn memory of Sora etching a poorly-drawn star into a rock into the right place; she _might_ have overdone it, since her carefully reconstructed chains of memory had shattered. And _now_ DiZ was telling her to hurry up and get on doing it. She swears, if she could, she'd kill the amber-eyed, mummified man.

"_Restoration terminated. Restarted. Restoration at 0 percent," _the computer beeped happily. She resisted the urge to slam the faded computer chair into the blinking screen.

"I hate you," she told the computer, who continued on blinking happily. Pssh. Like venting out her anger on the piece of machinery would do anything. Sighing, she let her fingers pound on the worn keyboard once again.

-----------------------

Roxas sat, belatedly stroking a dove as it fed on the bread crumbs (garlicky and buttered -- coming from the Nobody bakery across the Skyscraper) in his bare hand. He had taken off his gloves; they had become too wet for his liking.

He sighed once again as the dove took off, and he dusted his hands off (resisting the urge to lick them), shifting slightly in his seat.

Black, black, and more black. He could never get free of the accursed color, anyway. But what could one expect? It _was_ the Station of Calling, anyway. His foot drummed tiredly against the platform edge. The platform was actually one huge stained-glass image: his Other, Riku, and Naminé's Other.

"Naminé..." he murmured slowly, raising his eyes heavenward, into the Station's source of light. Of all the times he had been here, he still had no idea what that light was--all he knew was that the doves always flew towards it.

Now here he is wondering _why_ whenever he thought of the pale, blonde girl, he thought of _light_.

Gah.

The Station of Calling was something like his private sanctuary; only he could enter it, because he was a Keyblade Master (or so had Axel hypotheisized). It consisted of several massive columns, each tens of feet across, all bearing the same images, only overlaid with different colors. The columns were connected to the next by flights of white stairs, winding over the yawning darkness below. Several stained-glass windows hung beside him, supported by nothing in the darkness, unknown light filtering through. Doves always flitted to and fro here--they seemed at ease with the darkness.

Anyway, he came here whenever he needed to think.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he couldn't think right now.

"Arrgh," he growled, putting his head in his hands.

"Tired of your existence...?"

He swung his legs off the edge scrambled to his feet, Keyblades instinctively flaring to life in his hands. There, at the other side of the platform, stood a cloaked figure.

Now, normally, Roxas would have been untroubled; black coated people was something of a permanent fixture in his nonlife. He himself wore a black coat. But the very fact that this guy had _managed_ to get inside the Station of Calling frightened him. It meant that this figure was a Keyblade Master too.

"S-sora?" he asked shakily, reaching out with his Oathkeeper.

Quick as a flash, the cloaked figure disappeared into the darkness, only to reappear behind him. Roxas froze. "Don't say his name."

"W-wha---_aah!_"

Roxas fell to his knees, and found himself coughing up blood. He looked down at his coat in horror--blood had spattered everywhere; blood that came from that _huge_ slash in his side. That Keyblade-shaped slash. Panting, he somersaulted, crossing his Keyblades in defense. "Riku?"

"You guessed?"

Cripes, Roxas could almost hear him smirk. "Couldn't have enough, could you?"

The hooded figure, Riku, laughed; a chilling rasp--"On the contrary, Roxas!"

And the stained glass shattered uder his feet. Yelling, Roxas pushed off the panes of glass, jumping his way to the white stairs. He barely made it. Trying to catch his breath, he crouched down. His mind worked furiously. _How_ did Riku manage to do that? To fade so quickly into darkness? To break the Station of Calling itself?

Wait a minute! They were _both_ on the platform! If the platform collapsed, then Riku must've fallen along with it too!

"Idiot," Roxas grinned, in spite of the throbbing pain in his side.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk...Roxas, come quietly now..."

Stunned, he slowly lifted his head. Riku was actually _floating_ on thin air. Roxas squinted--and he saw the thin supporting strands of darkness. And he realized he had bitten off more than he could chew; _this_ Riku had found out a way to control the very essence of darkness itself.

Pushing himself upright, Roxas forced himself to smile. He _was_ the only Nobody who could wield light; this was going to be a very interesting skirmish. "...and why, pray tell me, would I do that?"

"Sora needs you."

He snorted. "Pssh. Like he does."

Riku crossed his arms. "He _is_ my best friend--I won't stand by watching him sleep forever!"

"He could kick the bucket, for all I care," Roxas retorted sullenly. "What's in it for me, anyway?"

He looked up to find empty air. The hooded figure was sitting beside him on the white steps. How in _hell_ did he manage to do that? "You get to be whole."

Roxas' eyes widened, and he immediately flipped over, landing several steps away from the Wielder. He had heard about this from Xemnas. There was this..._merging_ they talked about, and Roxas had no intention of giving up his own existence for his Other, thank you very much. No way in _hell!_ He still had to find a way to restore Naminé's memories!

"Roxas, you want to meet Sora, don't you?" Riku cajoled, spreading out a gloved hand. "Come with me."

"Back off," Roxas shot back. Riku withdrew his hand, a clenched fist now.

"Then...I guess I'll have to take you by force, then."

Roxas laughed, in spite of himself. "Just try...like you'd succeed, just like last time."

"Ah...but I _am_ the darkness now, Roxas."

He brushed his hood back...

THAT IS NOT RIKU.

"...y-you...look exactly like the Superior," he managed to mumble, before Riku brought down a hand. Neoshadows rose from the stairs and surrounded Roxas. Panting heavily, he let his Keyblades dance among the Heartless and watched them crumble into dust. His blood froze as he felt Riku portal behind him once again.

"Sora needs you, and I'm here to make sure he gets what he needs, Roxas."

He gasped, and his silver cross was stained with crimson.

---------------------------

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Naminé yelled, pounding her fists, frustrated. "If you haven't noticed, it took me a whole _year _to get Sora's memories rechained! I can't do that again overnight!"

DiZ was breathing heavily--with anger or heartburn, she didn't know. "Just hurry up, girl!"

"Get off my back then," she huffed.

"Stop procrastinating!"

"I'm _trying_ to!"

"Hey, Diz--"

She spun around on her chair, and found a hooded figure leaning against the Pod Room's doorframe, arms crossed. Uh. He didn't sound remotely Riku.

"--I got the Roxas kid," the hooded figure said nonchalantly, uncrossing his arms and standing straight square in the middle of the doorway. "Can you start fixing my best friends' head now? 'Cos sooner or later, Organization XIII would be hot on our trail, and let me tell you, they're one _hell_ of a persistent bunch."

She blinked. Organization XIII...they sounded pretty familiar. Maybe because DiZ had lectured her on the whole Nobody thing.

Organization XIII was a group of Nobodies bent on taking Kingdom Hearts in order to get their own hearts. Yeah--that sounded a lot like Marluxia talking. Axel once hinted that there were thirteen of them (of course--why would they call it Organization XIII?) and that him, Marluxia, Larxene, and Vexen were there because of a mission. Naminé thought that Axel also knew that Zexion and Lexaeus were also in Oblivion but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

Castle Oblivion--wooh! Well, it was a nice feeling (for someone who wasn't supposed to feel) to be a savior. She once saved Riku from the darkness inside him (stupid, stupid, Zexion, thinking that he was the only one who could wield darkness), and now, she was saving Sora. Well, maybe it didn't count, since _she _was the reason he needed saving in the first place.

Back to them Organization. The sound of them made her feel...sentimental. And at the sound of Roxas' name--somehow, her memory jumped.

_"Shut it, Roxie." "Roxie, you are so dead." "Question!" "Go ahead, shoot."_

Arrgh. Her and her broken memories. Eyelid twitching, she made her way over to Riku. "Psh, what did I tell you guys about hoods inside?"

She reached up, and Riku jerked back, but her hands had already pushed his hood back.

Naminé raised an eyebrow, surprisingly calm for a girl who just came face-to-face with a complete and utter stranger. "Who are you and what have you done with my friend Riku?"

A man of about twenty years of age stared back at her nervously, amber eyes wide, silver hair fanned gracefully across his back. He grimaced. "And I was supposed to keep this to myself," he muttered.

"Oh, pssh, Riku!" she peered up at him, lacing her fingers behind her back. "_Why _did you have to resort to such means?"

"Naminé!" A very harassed voice called from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to find a bewildered DiZ. "Who _is_ that?"

Oh yeah. DiZ had no idea what they were going on about. She turned around and tilted her head matter-of-factly. "It's Riku. Yeah, that's him."

"What?"

This time, Riku was the one who spoke up. "Roxas beat me the first time--even though he's a Nobody, he wields light. So I figured, in order to beat him, I had to counter with darkness."

"Roxas beat you?" Naminé said incredously, and DiZ nodded in agreement. Whoa. The great Riku. Roxas was wicked good then.

Riku shuffled his feet. "Don't rub it in."

"So Riku here had to take Xehanort's Heartless form in order to defeat Roxas...all that stuff," Naminé tried to explain, but right now, she was still too worked up on that stupid computer restarting.

"Where is the boy?" DiZ asked, rubbing his hands together. He sounded almost happy.

Riku shrugged. "In the Computer Room."

"Good. Let's upload him now--"

The silver-haired man growled. "Why can't he merge with Sora right now?"

"Naminé still needs to rearrange Sora's memories a bit more," DiZ said flatly, cloak brushing the floor in an almost belated way. "But we'll translate the boy into data in order to hide him."

Naminé bit her lip. _This_ was what Roxas was in for...He was going to be merged with Sora, and he'd give up his existence. Somehow, she felt much, much more than pity for the boy--deep inside, she felt like she would lose a part of her own existence if he was gone.

"Hey, Nam," Riku's voice jolted her out of her thoughts. "We're gonna go upload him now."

"Stay here," DiZ ordered, and the two swept out of the Pod Room.

She looked up into Sora's face; serenely asleep. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she silently slid the door open, and crept out, intending to watch what _exactly_ the two were going to do. She peered around the Computer Room's doorframe, careful not to be seen. They had their backs towards her, but Riku had stiffened slightly once she poked her head from behind the wall.

Her breath hitched; she had forgotten that Riku could trace people by scent. Oh heck, she was going to get it now. She shut her eyes tight, waiting for the inevitable lecture of 'doing-what-you're-told'.

None. Riku didn't tell. Biting her lip once more, she made a mental note to thank Riku later.

There, sprawled unconscious under the Mansion's translation beam, was a boy with a crown of golden spiky hair. He looked no more than fifteen--the same age as her. He was dressed in the same hooded coat as Riku...And in his asleep state, he looked just like Sora.

Roxas.

A silver X peeked out from under his hood.

And somehow, she knew, that if the boy opened his eyelids, cerulean blue orbs exactly identical to hers would peer out.

"Will it work?" Riku was asking.

DiZ made a derisive noise, swinging around slightly on the swiveling chair. "If we can maintain the simulated town until Naminé finishes chaining together Sora's memories."

"What will happen to Roxas?" Riku asked, in an almost guilty voice. However, DiZ had only hardness in his own.

"He holds half of Sora's power within him," he said flatly. "In the end, he'll have to give it back." He turned back to the monitors. "Until then, he'd need another personality to throw off his pursuers."

His pursuers...his Organization XIII brethren.

Now Riku definitely sounded guilty. "Poor thing."

DiZ looked up for a second, almost thoughtful. "It's the fate of a Nobody."

Naminé didn't know why crystal-clear tears were tracing their paths down her cheeks. In fact, she didn't know _why _she had gone here in the first place. She fell to her knees, not caring if DiZ or Riku saw her. As she watched, the translator turned on. Roxas dissimilated into bits of data, and vanished. She automatically chained his memories down.

**Was _that _the fate she would someday befall?**

And a memory flashed in her mind; someone **asking** questions--and _she_ **answering **them.

In that moment, she didn't know why, nor did she care--she vowed that she'd do _everthing_ in her power to save this boy; to tell him who he was.

Everything it took.

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Phoo. This is going to be a _long_ fic. I still have 6 days of Twilight Town to cover. Gah.

Read, Review, flame if you want to.

Ja ne!


	9. First Day

**A/N: **Sorry for not updating for so long...I had to hit the books. So anyway. If you haven't played KHII yet, this has **MASSIVE SPOILERS. **And if you _have _played KHII, bear with me, I've shortened the Days. Read at your own risk.

NOTE: The scenes are not _exactly_ like in the game, but the lines spoken are.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Kingdom Hearts, Roxas and Naminé would have their own spin-off game. Wooh.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

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The**First**_Day_

_----------------------_

_It's always the first day that scares you the most._

"...Seifer's gone too far this time."

Roxas felt the back of his neck prickle, which only meant that the three of his best friends were now simultaneously staring at him. He resignedly bobbed his head in agreement.

Hayner's eyebrows furrowed even deeper. "I mean, it's true that stuff's been stolen across town. And we've got a score to settle with Seifer and--"

He picked absentmindedly at his two finger 'bands' (for the lack of a better term), losing himself in the other blonde's rant about still _another _blonde (and a seriously stuck-up one). Getting tired of his finger bands, he proceeded to toy with his zipper's pendant--a cross-shaped curiousity of metal. He had much more...uhm, _pressing_ issues on his mind today.

Another dream about that kid. He's been having that feeling of falling almost everyday now. When he wakes up, he tries to snatch at _his_ face, but it slips away between his fingers like water. Gritting his teeth, Roxas forced himself to focus.

"...Now...what to do," Hayner muttered angrily, crossing his arms as he glanced at Pence, who glanced at Olette, who passed on the glance to Roxas. Yay. Now they all stared at him.

He squirmed a bit. "Uh...well..." he scratched his head. "We could find the real thieves. That would set the record straight."

"Hey, that sounds like fun!" Pence exclaimed happily beside him, eyes sparkling with excitement. Of course, it wasn't everyday that you got to go on a wild-goose chase all over Twilight Town to find some wiseguy, so his happiness was kind of...understandable.

"What about Seifer?"

Mouth twitching, Roxas turned slightly to face a very grumpy Hayner. Typical of him; he'd never pass up the chance to challenge Seifer. Come to think of it, Roxas had never passed up a chance, either. But there's always a first time for everything.

"First, we gotta clear our names," he said firmly, standing up and mirroring Hayner's scowl. "Once we find the real culprit, everyone will get off our backs."

The blonde's growl was suddenly overshadowed by a high-pitched exclamation Roxas thought came from Olette, but was quickly found out to be Pence...who was forlornly holding up his black camera. "Our ---- are gone!"

_Say what?_ He thought, bewildered, staring at his rather chubby photographer friend.

"All our ----, gone?" Hayner said next, quickly pressing his throat to his hand, as if doing so could coax out whatever word he was trying to say.

Olette looked ready to faint. "Huh? You can't say ----?" Her emerald eyes widened considerably, and she gasped. "Why not?"

_What the heck are they talking about?_

Pence gestured frantically with his hands. "But you do understand what I'm saying, right? Our ---- are gone!"

Roxas alternated a bewildered gaze between him and the shiny black camera clutched tightly in his shaking hand. It was with that camera that Pence had taken a lot of annoying off-guard pictures, some of which Roxas would dearly like to lock away in some musty old box and throw away the key. He muttered under his breath, "Stupid ----..."

_What the...! I can't say ----! I can't even _think_ about ----!_

"...Stolen..." he looked up, slowly getting what his friends were going on about. "And not just the ----. The word ----! They stole it too!"

"What kinda thief is that?" Hayner said slowly, "Seifer could never have pulled that off."

_Like hell no_, Roxas thought, nodding.

"All right, time for some recon!"

They all ran out of the secret place--Hayner in the lead, Olette panting, and Pence clutching the camera protectively to his chest. He sighed, scratched his head, and started to follow them out. Key word there being _started_.

The last thing he thought of before blacking out was '_This is going to be a very weird week'_.

- - - - - - - - - -

"His heart is returning."

Naminé bit her lip, watching as the blonde boy return to his senses. Olette, the emerald-eyed girl, looked in on him just in time, and Roxas ran out, into Twilight Town's Market Street. The boy and his three friends then started asking around--she tuned herself out of their conversations. She _had_ been watching his life on the computer screen; a fake imitation made out of real memories--Roxas' memories of the World That Never Was (1). She hated herself for letting Roxas go through with this.

DiZ spun around, leaving her alone in front of the voluminous screen. She heard him murmur gleefully as he stepped out of the Computer Room, "Doubtless he'll return very soon."

...revenge was something Naminé really didn't understand.

All she knew was Sora, the boy under her care, needed Roxas; and that her job was to finish piecing together the rest of the brunette's memories so that the blonde could remerge...and disappear. In most probably...one week. She dreaded that day when Roxas himself had to remerge.

She stared back up blankly at the screen. Roxas and his friends had come down into the simulated Sandlot--where the simulated Seifer was waiting. Naminé couldn't help but smile--being overly protective was a trait of his that she couldn't chain down, and that was what he was doing now. Roxas was being protective of his friends' reputation.

Too bad it was only a _simulated_ reputation.

The boy defeated Seifer with deadly ease--one could expect no less from the Nobody of a Keyblade Master.

The chubby one--Pence, then took a picture.

Uexpectedly, there was a flash of white on the screen, and Naminé immediately recognized it as a Dusk. She _should_ know, since she's watched Larxene train with those rubbery things almost every single day. Uh. There _was not _supposed to be Nobodies in her town--it was supposed to be a safe haven for Roxas!

"...RIKU!" She yelled, immediately setting to work on the keyboard, trying to recheck her firewalls. How the heck did Nobodies get in? "RIKU, GET IN HERE RIGHT _NOW_!"

Roxas, alone, had followed the Dusk...right into the front of the Old Mansion.

If Naminé had a heart, she would have been hyperventilating. Actually, she was doing so right now--is Roxas even _set foot_ inside the Mansion, he'd surely find out everything.

"RIKU!"

"_We have come for you, my liege." _A chilling voice spoke, one that seemed strange yet familiar at the same time to her. And then the mouth-zipper of the Dusk opened, and it attacked. At that instant, she realized that the Dusk meant to take back number Thirteen--conscious or not.

Roxas swung his blue foam-padded Struggle bat, and the Dusk easily dodged it, launching itself forward to attack.

"No way!" she yelled, panicking. She hurriedly focused her powers and punched in a few keywords, using a few of Sora's memories.

_Let this work...please! And don't let DiZ find out!_

"_It's no use_..." he said resignedly.

"Oh come _on_, stupid computer, hurry _up!_" Naminé screamed, cursing the operating system.

Data suddenly swirled around the bat clenched in the blonde's fist with a satisfying _swish_. _"What...?"_

She sighed in relief and sank into her swiveling chair. She had succeeded in importing Sora's Keyblade into the Twilight Town simulation--it would definitely keep Roxas safe.

"...okay. What have you done?" Riku's flat voice asked her frostily, his hand heavy on the backrest of her grey chair. He suddenly tensed, probably noticing the Dusk for the first time.

"_What...what is this thing?"_ Roxas asked himself, before shrugging and charging at the Dusk, making it disappear, leaving some photographs to flutter to the ground forlornly.

"_Riku!_" she said through gritted teeth, whirling around in her chair to face the hooded Wielder. "Organization XIII has already found Roxas, and--"

"Delete the Keyblade first!" he said through gritted teeth.

Nodding, she focused her powers once more, and the Keyblade disappeared in a swirl of data, leaving the Struggle bat in a very confused Roxas' hands. She watched absentmindedly as he, and his friends, sorted through the pictures left by the Dusk. "...how'd you think they found Roxas?"

"He's a Nobody," he said firmly. "Nobodies have ways of finding each other--Organization XIII must be desperate to get their youngest back."

"Yeah..."

_"Are they really all of me?"_ Onscreen, Roxas asked aloud, fingering the squares of memories.

_"See?"_

_"Look!"_ Olette squealed, jabbing a finger at each of the pictures in turn.

Pence raised an eyebrow, and Hayner looked like a smirk was threatening to get out. "_Right? Every single one," _he said loudly, as Roxas cycled through the photos. "_Wouldn't it be weird if the thief wanted to steal the real Roxas or something?"_

Hayner's smile turned into a full-blown smirk. _"C'mon, get serious. Why would anyone wanna steal a bonehead like Roxas?"_

The cerulean-eyed boy laughed. "_Oh, thanks!" _he said sarcastically, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

"I'll go tell DiZ," Riku stated, disappearing from the room in a swirl of dark cloth and darkness.

"Fine," Naminé huffed, pressing some more keys. By this time, Sora's consciousness should have started stirring--she was in the final stage of rechaining his memories.

As expected, Roxas automatically heard Sora's voice in his head, and one of the smaller screens beeped.

_"Restoration at 12 percent."_

She sighed, and sank deeper in her chair, bringing her knees up to her chin. Somehow, she had the foreboding feeling that she was doing something wrong.

Roxas _was_ never meant to exist, right?

Nobody would miss him.

Naminé bit her lip, repeating those two lines to herself over and over again, in an attempt to convince herself that what she was doing was for the best.

_Roxas was never meant to exist, right!_ She asked herself.

_Oh, but he is, Naminé. Everyone's meant to exist for somebody else._

"...for who?" she whispered aloud, eyes unseeing, as she faced the computer screen.

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(1) The simulated Twilight Town was superimposed on the World That Never Was, ne? Since in the game the beam in Twilight Town's Computer Room leads to the World that Never Was.

Wooh. Five more Days to go. Read and review; flamers go ahead.


	10. Second Day

**A/N: **And so the Second Day begins.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned KH, obviously, I wouldn't be typing this.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

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The**Second**_Day_

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_Well, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today._

_Donald Duck._

_Name's Goofy._

_I'm Sora. I'll go with you guys._

_The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade._

_That's right. The Keyblade._

_So...this is the key?_

_But the boy is a problem. He found one of the Keyholes._

Once again, for the second night in a row, the blonde boy living in no. 13, Star Street, Twilight Heights woke up in a cold sweat.

Roxas never did really like waking up in cold sweats; it was usually a sign that something bad was going to happen. Like yesterday. That was one heck of a weird afternoon--some guy in a white jumpsuit had taken to stealing pictures of him. Ew. Stalker.

_Keyholes..._

He put his head in his hands and massaged his temples. "A key...blade?" he murmured aloud, remembering that strange thing that flashed to life in his very own fingers.

Agh. He could feel a massive headache coming on.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"Explain to me _why_!"

Naminé grumbled, crossed her arms, pouted, and stomped her feet. Never mind that she looked very childish doing that. Heck, she'd even stuck out her tongue at the mummified figure standing irate in front of her. "..._why_ can Riku get in the town? Why can't _I_ get in?" she whined.

"...because I say so," DiZ said smugly. She resisted the urge to throw the swiveling chair in his bandage-wrapped face.

A black-hooded figure spoke up from his place, leaning next to the transport beam. "Besides, you might get hurt."

"_Because I might hurt?"_ she screeched, her voice bouncing off the steel walls. "_For crying out loud I BUILT the town!_" She paused, panting as she tried to catch her breath. Glaring daggers at the both of them (and hoping they really hurt) she turned back to the computer and worked her fingers over the keyboard.

"Excuse me?" DiZ asked pointedly at her. Naminé flashed him a death glare before sinking into the cushion of her swivel chair.

Okay, so DiZ was the one who made the town; but he had taught Naminé how to run the simulation. Heck, he had even taught her how to continue building the town ('cause DiZ only built the rough landmarks--he left her the tedious job that was detail), so technically...she built the town. Yep. And _she_ was the one who imported the people, 'cause her memory-arranging powers were needed to create the simulated population of Twilight Town. The real inhabitants of the real Twilight Town would probably think that it was all a dream--if not, well ,she was ready to chain down their memories if need be.

"It's not advisable for you to go in there," Riku spoke up once more, and Naminé narrowed her eyes at his amber ones. Something flickered in them...a flash of fear. It seemed like he was hiding something. Uh. He _had_ better not be hiding something.

The silver-haired figure walked up casually into the transport beam, and she uploaded him into the simulated Town--right next to Roxas' and his friends' favorite hangout spot...which was imaginatively named 'The Usual Spot'.

She watched in interest as the blonde bedheaded boy himself came into view, muttering something that sounded very much like '...Keyblade...'. He reached down for some random twig propped up coincidentally against the wall (never mind Naminé's smug smile), and waved it around--probably remembering the uploaded Keyblade from yesterday.

She watched with great satisfaction as Roxas chucked the branch over his head and beaned Riku squarely on the forehead.

"Naminé, you planned that, didn't you?" DiZ asked interestedly.

She nodded quite enthusiastically, beaming as she watched Roxas' apology trail away--staring at a now dignified-pose-ruined Riku. Hah. It was _so_ worth it...if only Riku had drawn his hood back, oh, his expression would've been priceless.

...it just went against convention. She was _not_ supposed to be the prankster type. For crying out loud, she was supposed to be the frail defenseless memory witch! Ah, but she had just learned that memories were something powerful--more powerful than any weapons she had ever seen.

Except for these things called _emotions_...

Her smile faded away.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Roxas watched, bewildered, as Hayner went on and _on_ about visiting the beach--something that yes, they have not done this entire summer (but he had the weirdest feeling that he, in fact, lived _on_ an island which was half beach), but couldn't, for obvious reasons. He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you forgot, but we're broke."

Hayner paused, then grinned . "Maybe you forgot I'm smart!"

And with that, he, Olette, and Pence ran out of their hangout.

Roxas rolled his eyes irritably. Hayner, always coming up with ways to show off--

"Hurry up, Roxas!"

He had been standing in the Usual Spot, and Pence had to come back and get him. What was with him and spacing out today...?

Roxas caught up with his friends in the alley in front, just in time to hear Hayner holler "We're going to Market Street!".

Sometimes, Hayner was something of a brother to him, yeah. But other times, Roxas felt plain rivalry with the _other_ blonde. They always fought each other, unconsciously, showing off what he had. It was actually fun to watch who was better at this or that thing--Roxas, or Hayner.

...and always, always, he felt a certain sense of déja vu. Like it had happened before--not before as in his childhood, but before as in a past life. Pssh. Like he believed in past lives or something.

Roxas sprinted into Market Street, and spotted them reading a poster on the upcoming Struggle tournament.

Struggle was a very simple game. All you had to do was try to bop off and gather all the coloured balls you can from whoever you were fighting, and avoid attacks at the same time. However, it wasn't any mindless bashing; you _had_ to know how this particular opponent attacks--like how Setzer, the reigning champion, always had this spinning attack that left you ball-less (erm, for the lack of a better term).

He ran up to them, panting. Hayner turned to face him with a confident smile on his face. "Just two days to go. You and I have to make the finals! That way, no matter who wins, the four of us split the prize!"

_...exactly what I was thinking._

"Okay," he agreed, "You're on."

Pence beamed excitedly. "You two are gonna clean up!"

"Go get 'em!" Olette bounced on her heels beside him.

Spurred on by the moment, Roxas raised his fist and crossed it with Hayner's. Yep. A pact had just been sealed.

"It's a promise!" Hayner pronounced loudly, before lowering his arm and huddling closer to their group. He looked something like a blitzball coach giving a pep talk to his team. "Now, let's get down to business. One ticket to the beach is 900 munny. How much for four of us?"

Roxas stared at Olette, as so did Hayner and Pence. Aside from the fact that math and Roxas weren't really on good terms, Olette was considered the brain of their group--leave equations to her.

Olette blinked. "3600 munny."

"And 300 each to spend there. What's that for all of us?"

"1200 munny," she blinked again, eyebrows furrowing. "A total of 4800 munny."

Roxas fought the urge to splutter. 4800 munny? That was a _lot_ of munny...how would they come up with something like that...? He tore away his gaze from Pence lacing his fingers behind his head, and turned to face Hayner. "To spend for what?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice calm.

"Pretzels, of course! What else is there?"

He stared at Hayner; the blonde was addicted to those knotted things. Not that he himself wasn't; Roxas just considered himself more of a sea-salt ice cream fan than a pretzel groupie. "Well," he paused, racking his brain. "There's always watermelon."

One glance at Hayner's face was enough to tell him it was the wrong answer.

"Too pricey. They're, like, 2000 munny apiece."

This time, Roxas really choked. He managed to cover it up hastily with a cough. "Pretzels it is."

He nodded, and spread his palms open. "So, where were we?"

Olette made a face; one that didn't suit her very well, that's for sure. "We need 4800 munny altogether. But all we have is..." she trailed off. Whoever said teenagers like them actually _had _munny saved in summer vacation?

Thankfully, the photographer spoke up. "I've got 800."

"...650," she added rather painfully.

Roxas scratched his head as he drew out his hand from his wallet. Aside from some forlorn fifty-munny bills, all he had in his wallet was lint. "150. Sorry."

However, Hayner grinned maniacally. "That's 1600 munny! We need another 3200. Let's find ourselves some odd jobs and earn some dough! We have 'til the train leaves to earn 800 munny each!"

Amazingly, he sprinted away off in the direction of Tram Common, leaving them behind. Roxas heard the blonde boy call out something before he disappeared.

"Meet at the station with cash in hand!"

Pence snorted derisively. Apparently, Roxas was not the only one who noticed that Hayner didn't actually contribute something in the first place. That was _so _unfair. His rather chubby buddy turned to face him and Olette. "Didn't he say he had it covered?"

By that time, Roxas was thinking of all those job postings in Tram Common, and wondering if he could beat Hayner to them. "Whatever," he said dismissively. "Those pretzels are sounding pretty good..."

Olette shrugged, and the three of them walked off in search of work to do.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Naminé had never really understood Somebody logic. She watched, getting amused, as the blonde boy called Roxas stomped his feet in frustration. He had failed to quickly whack a heavy bag-filled wagon up a rather steep street just in front of an alley, and he was only given ten munny for his efforts (which was quite something to see).

And if she wasn't mistaken, Roxas had bared his teeth at the garage owner for a split second.

Why would such a wagon _have_ to be hit repeatedly with a Struggle bat, anyway? He could just push, or pull it up the slope.

The boy had been straining himself the last hour in ways that defied logic, and she had watched every second of it.

Naminé had seen Roxas exterminate bees (which he had only thought of using Magnega on something like his seventh try), try to demolish junk in only one hit (key word being _try_, 'cause Roxas got frustrated really easily, that she discovered), deliver mail to people and pigeons alike, and bounce a white ball repeatedly into the air with his foam-covered bat (managing to get the hang of it after getting booed by the watching crowd twice).

Now, she leaned on the edge of her keyboard interestedly as Roxas skated around simulated Tram Common, sticking Struggle posters into outlined places on the assorted walls.

Why _this_ had to have a time limit was beyond her; no matter--the blonde bedheaded Nobody sure was a great skateboarder. She watched in awe as he performed a perfect forward flip off the side of a house, sticking no less than three posters into the said house's wall.

_Wow_...

She couldn't help but smile once more as Roxas ran off happily in the direction of the train station, munny in hand.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"All present and accounted for?"

Pence clapped his hands excitedly. "What've we got?"

Roxas couldn't help but feel a small sense of satisfaction as he dug out his hard-earned munny from his pants pocket. "Let's see..."

He could hear Hayner whoop siftly in admiration as he held out his hand; on which sat almost one thousand five hundred munny.

"...just this," he said smugly.

"Good job," Hayner said hesitatingly, but Roxas felt like jumping in joy. Hayner, admitting that he, Roxas, had actually _done_ a good job? It was as sporadic as Seifer not being in a brawling mood.

"Nice work, everyone," Olette said loudly, breaking Roxas' reverie and taking the munny from his hand. "Added to what we started with, we now have..."

She brought out an actually well-made (but don't say Roxas said that, 'cause praising Olette was something that Hayner took to be a sign of affection ((which it really was)), and Hayner had issues with other boys showing the brunette affection) knitted pouch, bright orange with red, green and yellow circles in front. She loosened the drawstrings and showed it to them--Roxas' jaw dropped open.

_That has to be something like four thousand--_

"Tada!" She said proudly. "_Five thousand munny!_"

"Sweet!" Pence chuckled loudly.

Roxas blinked as Olette shoved the munny pouch into his still-open palm (for which he berated himself for leaving open). Eh? Sure, he didn't really lose things like Hayner, but why did _he_ have to keep the munny?

"Let's get tickets!" She exclaimed, pulling Pence by the wrist and running ahead into the station.

Normally, this would be the time when Hayner would either be (a) burning mad that you could actually hear him glower, (b) bellow "_Pence get yer hands of my Olette!_", (c) calmly take out his own Struggle bat and chuck it at the photographer, or (d) chase after the two of them himself.

So Roxas was, understandably, surprised when he found Hayner still standing next to him.

"Wha...?" he started to say.

"We can't be together forever..." the blonde said in a eerily distant voice, so unHayner-like, "so we'd better make the time we _do_ have something to remember."

Eh...? What the heck was up with _him? _"Huh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hayner blinked, and broke into a grin. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed, punching Roxas lightly in the stomach.

_What was THAT about?_ Hayner, of all the possible people, being _random?_

Roxas watched, bewildered (something that he had been doing a lot today, it seemed) as the blonde ran off, probably to catch up with Pence and Olette. He shook his head, realizing that he still had the munny pouch in his hand. He nervously tucked it securely in his inner jacket pocket. Hey, five thousand munny was a _lot_ of munny.

_Calm DOWN, Roxas. All you have to do is cross a few feet of cobbled ground to the train station. Yeah._

Something told him it wouldn't be that easy.

- - - - - - - - - -

She smiled in satisfaction, leaning back in the now non-swiveling swivel chair, fervently hoping that DiZ did not find out what she had done.

Or not.

Naminé had just hacked into the simulated Twilight Town, and reprogrammed a bit of the simulated Hayner's memories. She really did hope Roxas got the message...she couldn't bear just sitting there, counting until zero hour when Roxas would have to remerge once more with Sora.

She got a hunch that she'd really be hurt if that happened. Roxas had to have some sort of warning; it'd be cruel if he didn't.

Wait...like she could feel pity...anyway...?

_We can't be together forever..._

Naminé wished she had made Hayner say something less vague. She watched tiredly as Roxas tucked the munny pouch under his jacket and walk off in the direction of the train station...probably going to buy tickets to the beach.

..._I didn't make a beach._

"I didn't make a beach," she said aloud wonderingly.

"OH GOD I DID _NOT_ MAKE A BEACH!" Naminé screamed, and began frantically typing on the keyboard. It would take her at least thirty minutes to create a beach, and Roxas and his friends were bound to leave in _ten_ minutes.

_man Naminé you are so screwed!_

"Riku? _Riku!_" she called repeatedly, pressing a few choice keys and speaking directly into the screen. She'd rather risk Roxas hearing her than risk them finding out there wasn't a really a beach after all. She didn't have any doubts on what the blonde boy Hayner would do--probably go around and smash things.

"Ri_ku!_"

She finally found the black-coated figure leaning sleepily, arms crossed and hood drawn back, against the brick walls bordering the station. "RIKU WAKE UP."

_"...eh?" _Amber eyes blinked sleepily.

"RIKU ROXAS IS GOING TO THE BEACH _PROBLEM IS I DID NOT MAKE A BEACH!_"

Riku quite suddenly straightened up and glanced up at the simulated twilit sky, silver eyebrows furrowed. "_So...? Make one then!" _he hissed.

Naminé dearly wished she could get her fingers around the Keyblade Master's neck and squeeze. Agh. She _knew_ she should've gone with Riku. "Riku," she said through gritted teeth. "Roxas _is_ going to the train station right NOW and the train IS coming!"

Riku blinked.

She banged her head on the edge of the keyboard exasperatedly.

Apparently, DiZ had heard her screaming at Riku, judging from the way he glided commandingly into the room and swept to a standstill beside her. "What is going on, Naminé?"

She ignored him, 'cause Roxas was getting dangerously close to the station. She typed on the keyboard in desperation, and Roxas tripped over an invisible boundary she programmed near his feet.

"RIKU STOP THEM FROM GETTING ON THAT DARN TRAIN!" she roared, getting to her feet and pounding the keyboard.

Finally, thankfully, the silver-haired Wielder raised his hood up, spun on his heels, and portalled to Roxas' side. Naminé hurriedly changed her point of view throughout Twilight Town until she had focused on a very bewildered Roxas, who found himself being helped up by some guy in a black coat.

"...and before you say anything," Naminé said loudly in DiZ's general direction, leaning back into her chair sullenly, "No, I did not make Hayner suggest they go to the beach. It was the _his_ memories that said that."

DiZ was visually taken aback by her statement, and she giggled silently; she had never spoken to DiZ like that. In fact, she had never remembered using that tone of voice before, but it felt familiar to her.

"_Four students!_"

"_Roxas, the munny!"_

"_Wait--"_

Naminé couldn't help but cringe as she watched Roxas search through his pockets for the munny. Agh.

"...and here we have it," Riku said loudly behind them, bouncing a rather fat munny pouch on his gloved palm. "They have no chance of getting to the beach now..."

"...I never thought of making a beach," Naminé pouted, leaning her chin on a cupped hand.

DiZ put his hands on his hips (or so it looked like to Naminé; his cloak pretty much his everything) and sighed. "I have to say it was a good thing you didn't make a beach. It'd be giving the enemy another entry point."

She stared at the bandaged face; cerulean blues meeting fierce orange. "It looks pretty bad though," she said slowly, referring to the situation Roxas was now in.

"_He took it!_" he was saying, poised to run out of the station, presumably in search of Riku and the munny pouch. However, Riku had already portalled out and was whistling quite contentedly behind her and DiZ.

"_Where are you going?"_ the girl, Olette, asked.

_"Remember when I fell?" _Roxas explained hastily, shaking his head. "_I had the money before that. I bet that guy took it!"_

Hayner looked completely confused. "_Guy?"_

She had to shut her eyes and bite her lip at this point; only Roxas had seen Riku help him up--his friends would probably think he's gone crazy or something. Hallucinating. Maybe get him committed to a mental hospital, if Naminé had bothered to create one.

_"He couldn't have gotten too far..."_

_"What are you talking about?_" Hayner paused, staring at his best friend. "_There was no guy."_

Roxas stared at the other blonde as if he had gone insane. "_Huh?"_ he spluttered, "_But he... There wasn't... Really?"_

"Y'know, he'd make a pretty good mental asylum patient, with those puppy-eyes of his," Riku said offhandedly. She looked over her shoulder, and the silver-haired Wielder immediately fell silent and stared at the ground. She made a mental note to remember whatever expression she had on; it was pretty effective.

She heard DiZ snort under a hastily-raised hand. For such a commanding aura, DiZ had the personality of a unusually outgoing older brother sometimes. Okay, so rarely. But he had sometimes taken to annoying Riku in ways that Naminé never got tired of.

The shrill wistle of a train blared from the speakers, and she focused her eyes on the screen once more, fighting the urge to shut her eyes tightly.

_"Oh boy..."_ Pence said dejectedly, shoulders drooping. Olette and Hayner were still staring at Roxas, probably wondering what the blonde was going on about, and where _their_ money went.

Roxas was also staring, but he was staring at the spot where Naminé had made him trip. He asked something that Naminé dearly wanted to answer...

"_There wasn't anyone...there?_"

"Only me," Riku smirked, and Naminé chucked a pencil at him.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Roxas knew it would be an interesting day.

Just...not in _this_ way.

He stared broodingly at the chunk of salty-sweet goodness hanging off the wooden stick in his fingers, not really seeing it. All he saw was a certain black-coated figure heaving him off the ground when he had tripped in the station earlier.

He also saw five thousand munny disappear.

Agh. He felt the headache he had at the start of this day return with a vengeance. The sun's rays only made it worse; everytime it shone into his retinas, he felt daggers stab his brain with a painful throb.

"...it's melting," Olette said gently, coaxing Roxas out of the shell he was known to retreat into whenever he was depressed. Roxas had the urge to meet her emerald eyes with a scowl, but worked his face into a rather sad frown instead.

"Sorry," he said quietly, watching the ice cream melt.

He could feel Hayner's sienna eyes bore into the side of his head, and he reluctantly raised his gaze to meet his.

"Cheer up already!" the blonde boy ordered him, eyebrows furrowing before grinning widely.

Roxas couldn't help but smile too, but his smile faded a bit when the memory resurfaced once more. "That was definitely weird, though."

"Strange," Olette chimed in.

Pence nodded in agreement, and Hayner cocked his head thoughtfully. "You said it."

Nevermind that Hayner always agreed with Olette, it was pretty comforting to know they weren't blaming him for the loss of the munny.

He watched as the ice cream finally gave up its struggle to hang on the popsicle stick, and drop off into the yawning abyss that was Twilight Town below. Roxas hoped it didn't land on anyone unfortunate enough to be standing under the Clockface.

"...can you _feel_ Sora?" he asked himself softly, letting his friend's animated chatter wash over him.

_He did not imagine that figure._

_A black-coated figure heaved him up by the arm, and whispered in his ear._

_Can you feel Sora?_

The troubling thought was, even though he was positive that he had never heard of this Sora before, his first and only answer was **_yes_**.

...questions were something he never thought he'd be frightened of.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"_Restoration at 28,"_ the feminine computer voice beeped happily, and Naminé bit her lip, having just rechained a major memory of Sora's with Roxas'.

She didn't want to go through with this, but it was choosing the lesser of two evils. She remembered DiZ's firm voice telling her the choices she had to choose from.

_Either Roxas remerges, or the both of them remain inactive--Roxas in a simulation, and Sora in cold storage._

She had a nagging feeling that she'd regret this later. Erm. She wasn't supposed to feel regret. Heck, she wasn't even supposed to _feel_.

"Arrgh," she whined at nothing at particular. "Why does Roxas make me _feel?_"

...she hoped nobody answered her question.

Naminé had no idea what she herself meant by that. Nobody as in _nobody_, or Nobody with a capital N...?

She sighed exasperatedly. Just four more days to go.

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Whoa. That was pretty long.

Four more Days to go.

...sorry for my typos.

Read & review. Flames are welcome.


	11. Third Day

...and here I am now. For you readers, you have to have played KHII to get some of the parts of the fic.

I don't own KH.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

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The**Third**_Day_

_----------------------_

_Never ask questions when you don't want to hear the answer._

_Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?_

_Riku! What are you doing here?_

**flash **a wisp of redwine locks and sun-kissed skin

_Did you find her?_

_**flying...**among the stars _faith._trust_ and **pixie-dust. **and it's not enough when you're only a _reflection_

_I still can't believe it. I really flew. Wait 'til I tell Kai--._

**flash **violet-blue eyes and cherry lips smiling back

_I'm searching, too._

_For your light? Don't lose sight of it._

_Where are Donald and Goofy?_

_Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking about her._

**flash **what's her _name_ I _can't remember do _they _remember_

Roxas blinked. He was in a room. A blindingly _white_ room, with this huge pod-thing in the middle.

But that wasn't what caught his attention.

It was a girl.

Flaxen hair, slim figure, pale yellow sundress, even paler, porcelain skin. He reached out, a hand oustretched. "Who _are_ you?" he asked, in a voice that seemed not like his own.

She turned around, and a slight smile graced her pale lips. For some reason, however, he couldn't see her eyes--

_"Gooood Morning Twilight Town! This is Skye in the morning, your earliest DJ bringing you the what's up this beautiful day--"_

_bop._

_crash._

"...arrgh," Roxas muttered. The _bop_ was his fist landing on his stupid bedside clock/radio/cd player/notebook PC/soda can holder. The _crash_ was said stupid bedside clock/radio/cd player/notebook PC/soda can holder falling into pieces on his dresser. It was still sparking with faint bolts of electricity happily. He made a mental note to tell his mom never to buy him one of those _things _ever again.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled suddenly, and his eyes snapped to the corner of his room. He found it empty, just as his common sense told him would happen.

But he was so sure that someone was standing there...

Argh. The week just got weirder.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Naminé yawned, and stretched her arms. Her pale hands would've hit the passing postboy, but they didn't. She made sure of that. She giggled as she flexed her fingers, which had just passed through his messenger bag like it hadn't been there. Waiting until her fingers turned opaque once more, she walked off into Twilight Town's Market Street.

It was still quite early in the morning, and she had made sure both DiZ and Riku were still snoring (maybe not so very much in the silver-haired Wielder's case) in their beds. Hey, they might be trying to save the world, but even heroes need to rest. Well...DiZ looked pretty old, anyway.

She turned right into the simulated Station Heights, and she felt her breath catch in her throat. Roxas, the blonde whose life (or nonlife; he's a Nobody) she had uploaded into this forsaken simulation, was walking up the same cobbled street. He was meeting with the brunette girl called Olette and that rather chubby photographer Pence--She had given him the memory of meeting up with them to go shopping.

"Hey," Roxas greeted with a smile enough to power a small town.

Naminé felt vaguely jealous. Erm. Like she could feel, anyway.

Olette blinked her jade-green eyes and smiled back. "Morning."

_Naminé, you don't have much time here..._the voice at the back of her head sang.

Shaking her head, she raised a hand and stopped the simulation. It was one of her abilities as a User of the computer...her whole body tingled with anticipation of Roxas seeing her for the first time. She had decided to do this little rebellious act in defiance of DiZ's manic plans. The blonde Keyblade Master at least _had_ to know what was to happen to him before he was forced to remerge.

Roxas was in the act of running up to his frozen friends when she let herself materialize out of nowhere.

"Hello, Roxas."

She told herself that she had to do this more often. The stunned expression on the Nobody's face was priceless. In addition to blanching as white as he could, his stormy blue eyes had gone as wide as they can, and his mouth was fixed in a small 'o'. The giggle that she had been stifling bubbled out from her throat, and the soft sound seemed to snap Roxas of his reverie.

"Uh..." he stammered, shock still painted on his face, "Hi...and you are...?"

She was about to answer when she felt Sora's memories shift slightly. Like a little mound was about to topple over or something. It was a pretty good reminder of what she actually _had_ to do to save the brunet Keyblade Master. If Roxas refused to merge, well...

Roxas opened his mouth, presumably to repeat his question, but she put up a hand to stop him.

"Um," she thought furiously. What would she say to a boy who had just found his friends were frozen in time and this girl suddenly comes out of nowhere and talks to him? "I...I wanted to meet you," she hesitated. Somehow, saying 'I wanted to meet you, the guy who's going to disappear forever' or 'you, the guy who had been living in a simulation', or 'you, the guy who everybody's going to forget' wasn't the best thing to do. Erh.

...at least once, " she finished.

Naturally, Roxas was still stunned at this point. "Me...?" he managed to choke out, staring at her so intensely it made her squirm.

"Yes, you," she repeated. The blonde boy scratched his head, and Naminé decided to leave it there. If she rushed things, Roxas might go berserk and she might not be able to save Sora. But some part of her mind was telling her that it was _Roxas_ who needed saving, because...well, because she had this weirdest gut feeling that she had somehow known this guy before.

Pssh. Maybe a little tour of this Town would take her mind off these things.

- - - - - - - - - -

He watched that pale, flaxen-haired girl walk away, transfixed. Some because of her appearance, but mostly because she had the bluest blue eyes he had ever seen. Roxas heard Pence distantly, saying something about how Olette had dragged him to go shopping.

"...d'you want to come with us?" the brunette asked, peering up at him.

He blinked. Eh? What just happened? Did time just really freeze? And who the _heck_ was that girl? "Um, uhh, wait," he stared in the direction of the street where she walked off. "did you just see that..."

"He's stalling," Pence said, smirking.

Olette sighed, a bit dramatically. "Very well then. We'll see you later, Roxas, okay?"

He managed to nod and choke out a 'yeah', watching two of his best friends walk away. His mind was still on that girl.He had a funny feeling that she had something to do with the dreams he's been having lately. Roxas bit his lip and wondered where she could've gone. "Did she go to the Old Mansion...?" he asked himself, nodding. Why the Old Mansion? He just had a gut feeling. Yeah.

He sprinted out of Station Heights and to Tram Common, to the hole in the wall that led to the Woods. On the other side lay the Old Mansion, a building that was rumored to be haunted. By what, he didn't really care to listen.

Roxas gasped when he saw her walking down the street, delicately avoiding the various upturned bricks and uneven parts of the cobbled ground. She then disappeared behind an accessories store--literally. Eh? Where the heck did she go?

He scratched his head. "Weird."

Spotting the hole in the wall, he waited for the Tram to go through (although the Tram was as slow as a snail, it still kind of hurt if a four-ton piece of train hit you) before walking up to it. It was something of a mystery why nobody had thought to just put a door in the wall instead of leaving the unsightly hole to be the entrance to Twilight Woods.

The hairs at the back of his neck prickled once more, and he spun around on his heels. "Huh?"

A dark...thing. A cloud. A dark cloud-thing was there, and those white jumpsuited _things_ were coming out fast. And were coming towards him. This was not good.

They all grabbed hold of him and started to push him towards the cloud-thing of darkness. Definitely not good.

Gritting his teeth, Roxas wrenched himself free. Getting abducted by these weird, stange, and most definitely unbelievably _flexible_ creatures was not his idea of a productive morning. "Lemme go!"

With that, he sprinted back to Tram Common and hurled himself around the first corner he saw. Which he realized was the Sandlot. And the Sandlot meant the 'disciplinary committee', which meant Seifer, Rai and Fuu, three of the biggest jerks he had ever met. Also Vivi. The kid who seemed to idolize the three. Someday he'd like to talk sense into the Black Mage.

The blonde scar-faced boy smirked as he saw Roxas sprint in. "Hey, chicken wuss," he greeted.

Roxas stole a glance over his shoulder, and sure enough, those things had followed him.

"Who's that?" Fuu asked in a monotone. Well, she might have been scared to death for all he cared--he wouldn't know, since the silver-haired girl always spoke in a monotone and at most, two-syllable sentences.

Jumpsuited _things_ trying to kidnap him, the disciplinary committee, a strange pale girl, and Pence going shopping with Olette--could this day get any worse?

- - - - - - - - -

It was a good thing Naminé decided to walk, not portal, back.

Those Dusks were at Roxas _again_. Really. Didn't those things ever give up?

Eh? If the Dusks were here...it meant the antivirus had been breached again! She _told_ DiZ to update the software, but in all likelihood the mummified man had spent the munny on Sea-Salt ice cream. Cripes, he was ancient and he still liked those popsicles! She herself had never tasted one, but...

She ran with her Nobody speed to the Sandlot, and portalled, unseen, to the top of one of the surrounding buildings. She wasn't surprised to see the lot of them trying to fend off the Nobodies with those foam-covered Struggle bats, and wasn't surprised to see it was no use.

Roxas' bat was knocked out of his hands and he himself was knocked down onto the ground.

"Okay...that's not good," she said to herself, and she flung her hands out to stop the simulated time. The people called Seifer, Fuu, Vivi and Rai froze, being from the simulation. Roxas and the Dusks didn't, because they had been uploaded.

She fervently hoped the Keyblade, the real one, would hear the call of one of its masters. "Roxas!" she yelled, and the boy looked up, positively panicked. "Use the Keyblade!"

One of the Dusks rushed forward to slash Roxas, and the boy blocked with his arms.

Thankfully, the Keyblade did hear, transporting Roxas and Naminé to its resting place, the Station of Serenity. She remembered seeing one of these in Sora's broken memories, but the stained-glass floor was decorated with the images of the Six Princesses of Heart, because it was the problem back then.

Now, the floor was made of an image of Sora, Riku, and her Other. Kairi...the seventh Princess. Waves on the background and crowns around the edges. _This_ was the problem now, and she was supposed to fix it. Ack.

Naminé sat on the edge of one of the higher platforms, out of Roxas' sight. If he failed the test, well...he couldn't fail. He was Sora's Nobody, and a powerful Keyblade Master in his own right. And since she _was_ the Nobody of a Princess of Heart, it meant she had inherited at least some of her powers.

Like the power to test Roxas' skills. He's going to need them if he's going to fend off the other Nobodies, which was only going to happen if DiZ got too lazy to update the stupid antivirus software.

A bewildered Roxas was standing in the middle of the royal-blue shaded platform, and Naminé waved a hand. The traditional symbols of training appeared before the boy: a warrior's sword for strength, a mage's staff for magic, and a knight's shield for defense. The Keyblade guided her and shared its power.

She could see his eyelid twitch before he walked towards the sword.

The Keyblade burst into life in his hand, not in a swirl of data, but in the normal spatter of lights. It was nice to know that this was no longer a simulation. They were in the Keyblade's home, and there--

Naminé shivered; the familiar feeling of a portal being opened nearby assaulted her senses. Dusks stormed the platform Roxas was standing on, and tempted as she might be to save him right then and there, she felt it wasn't right. Eh. The Keyblade would take care of him, anyhow.

Sure enough, he defeated the Dusks easily with the deadly grace of a Keywielder. Even he himself seemed a little stunned of his capabilities as a fighter.

She waved a hand once more, and a white marble door, very much like those at Castle Oblivion, coalesced into the far side of the platform.

_Be careful. Beyond that door lies a completely different world. But don't be afraid._

She almost yelled out loud at the bodiless voice, but caught herself in time. It...the Keyblade...whatever it was...it was acknowledging Roxas as a boy trying to gain the right to the Keyblade. Hadn't this happened before Riku took the blonde Nobody...?

She needed a Curaga; her headache was heading towards 'excruciating pain'. Naminé had seen a similar memory in Sora's mind. Bodiless voice telling him not to be scared and everything else.

Roxas walked to the door and wrenched it open. He didn't see that there was a portal on the other side, taking him to the Station of Calling. Either that or he was way too bewildered to care, anyway. He sprinted up the glass stairs, wasting Dusks as he went with the rapid twirling of his Keyblade. She watched amusedly, until he came to another door.

She sighed. Okay. Time to bring out the big guns.

...was Roxas _really_ good enough?

Naminé got up and stood on the edge of her platform, yawning blackness only inches away from her sandalled feet. She hoped honest-to-goodness DiZ didn't find out what she was going to do. Concentrating, she clasped her hands together and summoned the Twilight Thorn.

She found out she could do this half a year ago. She was so lonely and bored in Castle Oblivion (after all, drawing can only go so far if you have inspiration, and back then, she wasn't feeling too inspired) that she fervently prayed and hoped that someone or some_thing_ would come and keep her company.

She woke up the next day, her room filled shoulder-to-shoulder with Dusks.

Luckily, she managed to dismiss them before Axel came over for his routine checking-up on her.

Ha! Take _that_, Marluxia. You're not the only one who could summon Nobodies!

Roxas yelled in panic, and took his Other's familiar fighting stance: crouched low, hands crossed over the Keyblade's handle.

Naminé sat back down and watched him fight.

- - - - - - - - - -

All in all, it was shaping up to be a majorly weird day, Roxas thought, as he leapt out of the way of this huge _thing_ with a blue scarf. He never knew he could jump so high. Running to gain momentum, he pressed his feet against the thing's hand (or limb or whatever it was) and flipped over, bringing his Keyblade down in one final attack.

However, he expected it to topple _backwards_, not the other way around, like it was doing now. He yelled; there was no way he'd be able to get out in time and he'd surely get crushed by his adversary's dead weight.

And it did come down, and he fell into darkness. He clawed at the source of light, desperate to reach anything. Pure, pitch-black darkness all swirling around and calling his name--

"_Cripes, you yell enough to wake the dead..."_

Someone grabbed his wrist.

Roxas blinked, and once again, he was in a white room. It was eerily pure white. White. All freakin' white. White marble chairs lay toppled over the sides, and here and there, white platforms rose up high and low. It was surreal; something like the things you only see in dreams--

He opened his mouth to speak, but that girl (hey! how long had she been there?) placed a finger on her pale lips, signalling for him to be quiet. "My name," she hesitated briefly, as if wondering whether she was doing the right thing, and then continued on. "is Naminé. Roxas...do _you_ remember your true name?"

Eh? What the hell? His _true_ name?

He opened his mouth to voice out his thoughts when another one of those cloud-things coalesced behind Naminé, and a black-coated figure stepped out.

"Say no more, Naminé," he ordered, picking her up by the arm. She looked thoroughly shocked and alternated a helpless gaze between him and Roxas.

"But! If no one tells him, Roxas will..."

The hooded man slowly shook his head. "It's best that he doesn't know the truth."

By this time Roxas had no idea how to make head or tail of the conversation. What true name? What was Naminé supposed to tell him? And wha--"Hey!" he yelled, advancing forward, jabbing an accusing finger his direction. "You're that pickpocket!"

He could swear he actually _heard_ the figure smirk. Roxas felt a foreign _whoosh_ of air behind him, and he quickly leapt away from the cloud-thing forming there. A portal. He looked around just in time to see the hooded man push him into the very portal he had leapt away from.

Everything went black.

- - - - - - - - - -

"I can't believe you!" Naminé yelled, wrenching herself free of the still-hooded Keywielder's grip. "Don't you even care about Roxas' feelings about this whole thing?"

"Nobodies can't feel, Naminé," he said shortly, sitting down on one of those platforms.

It stung.

So maybe the concern she was feeling was a farce...

...well, fake as it may be, she _still_ cared about Roxas, and that was all that mattered.

But maybe Riku did save her from making a terrible mistake. He was still obsessively worried about Sora's condition and how long it would take her to fix him. Even if he didn't remember exactly _why_ or even how he had become the brunet's best friend. But he had told her that as she pieced together Sora's memories, Riku's own memories were coming back.

If Roxas refused to merge...Riku might actually kill.

Uh.

She sighed resignedly and sat down beside him. "Well, in any case, I still feel for him."

He drew back his hood, and focused his unblinking orange eyes on her. Naminé had figured out the trick to bearing that gaze without squirming only two weeks ago: just stare right back. "You feel for him. Okay. I know why, anyway," he muttered, lowering his gaze and fiddling with his gloves.

"What do you mean, you know why?" she demanded. She swore she could see immense guilt in his eyes before he looked down again.

"Because! Kairi's worried for Sora, so you're worried for Roxas," he explained, but he trailed off. Obviously, he cut his words off; there was something he was not telling her, and it was maddening.

"Ri_ku_," she said exasperatedly, peering up at him. He looked away.

"That's _it_, Naminé. And I'd rather you call me Ansem from now on."

Naminé stared at him increduously, and a muscle in her jaw twitched violently. "...why?"

"Argh," he groaned. "I _am_ Ansem now. I have to stop disillusioning myself that I'm still Riku."

"But you _are _Riku! You just had to take on Ansem's appearance to defeat Roxas. It's the inside that counts! You just _look_ exactly like Ansem, but _you're not him_. What's the point?"

"That _exactly_ is the point, Nam! I can't face Sora and Kairi and everyone else looking like _this_!" he gestured to himself, standing up as he did so.

"Oh, so I'm not _everyone else_, am I?" she asked testily.

Riku stopped. "That's not what I mean---"

"I can call you anything I want," she huffed, standing up herself and summoning her own portal back to her room at the Mansion. "And I want to call you Riku, because that's who you are. That's that. Excuse me, I'm going back."

She stepped into the portal, leaving a surprised and slightly amused Riku behind.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Roxas skidded to a stop inside the Usual Spot, panting slightly. Fighting that _thing_ was nothing compared to the disappointed look on his friends' faces as they caught him together with Seifer's posse.

Well, _technically_ he was with Seifer, but only because that stupid pickpocket's portal dumped him right in the middle of the Sandlot, unconscious. Something probably muddled the three jerks' heads because they thought they were the ones who actually finished those creatures in jumpsuits. Pssh.

He hoped to the high heavens that Hayner, Pence, and Olette would take his appearance together with Seifer, instead of going to Market Station and to the beach. Knowing them, they had probably waited for him the whole day, only to find him in the company of Seifer.

Jerk, he told himself.

"So...you hung out with Seifer's gang today?" Pence asked, looking up from the couch.

Roxas blinked rapidly, and shook his head. "N-no... It's not like that...," he trailed off, spotting the scowl on Hayner's face. "Oh yeah! How was the beach? Wasn't that today?"

Olette regarded him with a wan smile. Which, strangely, made his heart plummet. "We didn't go. It wouldn't be the same without you, right?"

A very uncomfortable pause.

"...Sorry," he managed to choke out. "Hey...how 'bout we go tomorrow?" he suggested, brightening up the mood instantly. "We could get those pretzels and..."

"I promised I'd be somewhere," Hayner cut him off, surliness etched on his face.

"Ohh." He mumbled, wondering where the blonde would go.

It hit him with the force of a speeding train. Packed with passengers and who had no brakes.

"Oh!" Roxas cursed under his breath as Hayner shot him a condescending glare. The Struggle Tournament! No wonder Hayner was so mad at him. First, he ruined the trip to the beach. Then, he completely forgot about the tournament where they had promised to participate in just _yesterday_.

"I'm outta here," Hayner growled, storming out the entrance and nearly ripping out the curtain as he went.

Roxas stared after his best friend, then at Olette (who was resolutely looking at the wooden planks of the floor), then at Pence (who was engaged in a staring match with the dartboard), trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach.

Did he _really_ had to ask himself if this day could get any worse?

He decided to lay off asking himself things for a while. He might finally snap and go insane.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

da-dun.

There!

Halfway through. I think.

Read and review. I'll get back to ya.


	12. Fourth Day

**A/N: **WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH TO SAY HOW MUCH I'M SORRY FOR UPLOADING THIS SO LATE.

ARRRRRRGH.

So anyway. Massive spoilers for KH2 ahead. You have been warned.

**Disclaimer:** Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix.

----------------------

**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

----------------------

The**Fourth**_Day_

_----------------------_

-_falling is like flying in a lot of ways_

_you're weightless_

_the air is in your hair_

_and the breeze is kissing your skin_

_only difference is, in falling, there's no way back up-_

_Is that...is that a girl?_

_Looks like a redhead. In a huge library. With her grandmother._

_Strange...I don't seem to--_

It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world.

_Silver hair...he looks familiar_

So, your heart won this battle.

_It's him again_

It is I, Ansem, lead me into everlasting darkness!

**_flash_** _it's the redhead again_

_who the heck are these people?_

We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other.

Take this. It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me.

_A star...Oathkeeper...eh?_

Don't worry. I will.

Promise.

_Is that a Keyhole?_

Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you ---

_What the!_

Roxas woke up with an earsplitting headache for the third day in a row. What's worse, he suddenly remembered exactly _why_ he had a headache. Blinking rapidly, he turned to stare out his bedroom window. "Right. Promise," he said loudly, bringing his hand down in imitation of that weird... key-thing. Whatever it was. "What a mess..."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Naminé looked over her shoulder, first the left, then the right, then over the left once more. She swallowed painfully, and then, looked again over her shoulder.

Yes. Being paranoid never hurt anyone. Look at DiZ, for example. Ever since Naminé had known the mummified guy, the locks on the main door of the Old Mansion had been increased by one every two months. It was a pain in the neck to try and open them every single morning, so, Riku, irritated beyond the point of reason, just took his Keyblade and broke the door down. Now DiZ's paranoia transferred to the kitchen freezer. He, and only he, could get the Sea-Salt ice creams they had stocked with their own munny. Uh. Naminé had always thought the guy was weird.

She bit her lip and pressed a single key. Immediately she sprinted to the uploader of the main computer in an inhuman feet of agility, managing to catch the _whoosh_ of data upload without making a single sound.

Panting, she leaned on the railing of the building in which she had uploaded herself on. Cerulean blue eyes peeked from under choppy blonde bangs as she looked up, hoping to the high heavens nobody had noticed her appear in a swish of data.

"_Yes!_" she murmured, seeing that the people crowded upon the rooftop were much too busy cheering on the Struggle match below. She could've actually watched the tournament on the computer, but for some reason, Naminé wanted to see it for herself. Uhm. Roxas had no connection to it. None at all.

She blinked, and gathered her hair over one pale shoulder. She suddenly noticed a little boy, about six years old, with sandy blonde hair and chocolate-brown eyes, gaping at her. Naminé felt her stomach do a 360-degree flip -- the little guy had just seen the most unbelievable sight in his entire life.

"Hitsuki," the teenage girl holding the boy's hand said. "There's your brother, fighting against Roxas! Cheer for him!"

The boy still gaped at her.

Forcing a smile, Naminé walked up to the two siblings and discreetly put a hand on the boy's shoulder. She needed physical contact to chain down memories. "Oh, hi!" she greeted confidently. "You guys Hayner's siblings?"

"Yeah," she said proudly, yanking her little brother up a bit. "I'm Heléna, Hayner's older sis, and this is Hitsuki."

Naminé laughed. "Seems like your parents have a fascination with the letter H."

"Isn't it obvious?" she replied, and burst into laughter as well. Naminé let her hand drop down discreetly from the boy's shoulder, and hoped that the glazed look in his eyes would go away sooner.

The crowd suddenly roared, and she looked down the Sandlot just in time to see the sandy-haired teen crash onto the ground, with Roxas panting and pointing his Struggle bat against his throat. Naminé fought the urge to yell in glee, because (a) Roxas would definitely hear her, and would definitely look up and see her, and would definitely have a lot of questions to ask, and (b) Naminé didn't even have the capacity to feel glee in the first place.

"Not even friendship will slow this kid down," the rather pudgy announcer said loudly, and threw his favorite customer a grin, before giving Hayner a warm smile. "And Hayner put up a great fight, too."

"Aww, he lost," Heléna sighed, then suddenly her lips curved upwards to a smirk. "He owes me twenty munny, then."

Naminé was far too absorbed in watching Roxas move. She was sort of...entranced at the way he sheepishly scratched his head as Hayner congratulated him. She would truly be sorry to see him remerged to Sora. In fact, right now, she won't allow such a thing to happen. It would be a huge waste of good looks and great personality.

"What the _heck_ am I thinking?" she muttered, shaking her head vehemently and earning more than a few strange looks from the people around her.

Uh. Okay. Sounded for a minute there she had a crush on the guy.

...no. It...it felt like she was already comfortable with him. Like she'd known the blonde Nobody before. But she had never seen Roxas before Riku had brought him to the Old Mansion.

Naminé needed sleep. Yeah. That's it.

She gazed down once again at the large circle of ground. A trenchcoated blonde boy with a scar running across the bridge of his nose and an unusually short kid were squaring off inside. Well, actually, the blonde was the one doing more of the squaring-off talk --- the short kid was just giggling abnormally.

The announcer was evidently stunned that the short kid got into the finals. Well, Naminé had just programmed their memories to go on with their daily lives, but even she had not anticipated the kid --- Vivi --- to reach the final four. Hmm. Maybe there was just another glitch in the system. Sheesh. Another thought to use for leverage to get that lazy bum DiZ to update the antivirus.

"Whew, just look at those sparks fly! I guess Seifer didn't expect to fight one of his own boys!"

_Yeah_, she thought inwardly as she folded her amrs and rested them on the edge of the railing. Vivi suddenly sprinted forwards and lunged at Seifer, earning a collective gasp from the stunned crowd. Apparently, Vivi didn't normally do that. Seifer continued to block the flurry of blows the black mage was dealing, until he finally found a break and knocked him over.

Seifer whooped with joy and smirked, lunging back at Vivi. "You're mine!"

Naminé's eyes widened, and she suddenly hoped that it the firewall hadn't suffered some sort of breach. She had just seen Vivi retaliate with the speed and agility of a Dusk. A really rubbery and flexible Dusk.

"I-I'm not sure what just happened..." the announcer trailed off, bewildered, "Um...but...the winner is Vivi! In a positively blistering comeback!"

Vivi giggled as Seifer got to his feet, brushed himself off, and stomped off the stage, grumbling all the way.

She gripped the railing convulsively as she realized who the next match's competitors were. If Vivi _was_ a Nobody, well...Roxas would be in big trouble. She had just deleted the uploading sequence for the Keyblade, and there was no way she could type in the sequence if she stayed here. But if she loaded out the simulation Roxas would notice for sure that she had done so, and if she tampered more with the blonde's memories, Sora's fragile chain of memories would break.

And _that_ would be a year's amount of work wasted.

"And now, the match you've been waiting for: Roxas vs. Vivi!"

- - - - - - - - - - -

It was really hard to believe that the person Roxas was fighting really _was_ Vivi. As far as he knew, Vivi was a black mage, not a monk, a warrior, or seriously, a Paladin. It just _wasn't_ Vivi, to be able to fight like this.

Vivi charged forward, Struggle Bat held high, and he barely managed to dodge to the side. He spun around in an attempt to hit the boy from the back but in a bewildering display of agilitly, Vivi actually jumped off his own bat and landed nimbly six feet away.

What. The. Hell. Happened?

Growling, Roxas felt his adrenalin surge as he spun around and attacked Vivi. Fortunately, all the small black mage could do was parry all the hacks and slashes the blonde bedheaded boy was bestowing. Soon he was showing signs of faltering, and Roxas increased the strength of his blows, internally wondering when he had gotten _this_ strong.

He went in for one final blow, a triumphant grin on his face.

_Eh?_

For what seemed like the millionth time in this week, time froze. Roxas was no longer shocked. He was getting used to this, and that was a thought that scared the living daylights out of him.

He blinked.

"_Again?_" he said disbelievingly in an exasperated voice. In the span that he had his eyes closed, Vivi turned into another one of those rubbery jumpsuited things. He took a step back, swallowing painfully as he considered his situation. That thing looked pretty dangerous right now...

He felt the Struggle Bat's wooden handle meld into the coolness of metal, and he realized, with a shock and a swirl of data, that the Keyblade had once again appeared in his fisted hand.

"Again..." he sighed resignedly, as more of the rubbery things coalesced around him. Whenever one of those things appeared, the Keyblade came to him. And whenever the Keyblade came to him, more of those things appeared once more. He fought the urge to scratch his head and wonder what exactly was going on, because, right now, he was being surrounded by the white jumpsuited creatures, and his instincts told him to fight.

_Instincts? Roxas! Since when did you have instincts to fight with a huge key?_

The creatures charged.

Of course, he had no choice but to retaliate. So he did.

Fourteen jumpsuited creatures, three backflips, one cut arm, one ruined jacket, and twenty minutes later, Roxas stood alone in the center of the sandlot, amidst the frozen visages of cheering people. He bent down and leant on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

"Roxas. All right. Fight fight _fight_."

He froze, hands on his knees, as empty applause echoed through the equally empty air. He looked over his shoulder, eyes tracking the progress of the black-coated figure walking across the Sandlot. Which happened to appear out of thin air. It sort of freaked Roxas out.

The man stopped, and Roxas could feel the frustration in the air. "You really don't remember? It's me. You know, Axel." And as if to make a point, he set his hood back.

He stared. The slim, black-coated man sported a shock of wild crimson hair which jutted out into all directions. Piercing teal eyes regarded him with a scrutiny that he wasn't particulary fond of, and two similarly teal diamond tattoos sat right under his lower eyelids. He was painfully thin, but he moved with a swift motion that told the world that he was anything but weak.

And strangely, although Roxas was absolutely positive that he had never seen this person before, he felt the urge to run up and hug the man tightly.

That was just weird.

He was weirded _and _freaked out in the same day. And in the same minute. What was the world coming to?

"Axel?" he repeated, feeling the name slide off his tongue as if he had been using it for the longest time.

Axel threw his hands up in the air and then slapped his forehead in one smooth exasperated motion. "Man oh man, talk about blank with a capital 'B'," he paused, and stared at Roxas. He stared back. "Even the Dusks aren't gonna crack this one..."

Dusks? Were those the jumpsuited things? What kind of name was that? Bile rose up in his throat. He was tired, he was panting, he was confused, and he needed a Potion badly. Really badly.

He fought the urge to throw up when something..._what the hell was that?..._whirled to life in Axel's gloved hands, wreathing them in flame. Roxas stared, and a name came to his mind.

Those are _chakrams_...

He was halfway through patting himself on the back for coming up with the name when he caught himself; how exactly _did_ he come up with the name of a weapon he had never encountered before? It certainly hadn't been taught in his Weapons classes, and seeing how fire licked the metal and blazed white-hot from the chakram, it wasn't even legal.

Axel tensed.

Roxas gulped. "Wait a sec, Tell me what's going on!"

"This town is his creation, right?," the redhead replied, looking around warily as the chakrams hung from the egdes of his fingers, "Which means we don't have time for a Q & A. You're coming with me, conscious or not. Then you'll hear the story."

Somehow, the 'You're coming with me, conscious or not' part didn't seem to be very appealing.

Axel tensed even more, and Roxas looked on in disbelief as a strange..._something_ whirled around them. Like the dark cloud-thing from yesterday. The small "Uh-oh" from Axel didn't help.

Roxas snapped. He threw down his Keyblade _hard_ on the cobbled ground, enjoying the satisfying metallic sound it made when it bounced off and came to a rest a good thirty feet away from him. He was tired, he was frustrated, and more importantly, he was confused. And a confused Roxas was not a good thing.

"What's going ON!" he yelled to nobody in particular.

As if to answer his question (either that or just to piss him off), the Keyblade coalesced back into his right fist in a sparkle of lights.

"Number Thirteen. Roxas," Axel said flatly, almost boredly. "The Keyblade's chosen one."

And with that, he tensed, chakrams held ready to throw at a moment's notice. He sure seemed to be set on taking Roxas to only Creator knows where. Well, Roxas was not about to let that happen.

"Okay, fine!" he said irritably, going into a fighting stance of his own. "You asked for it!"

Unbelievably, the crimson-haired man's eyes shone with glee. "That's more like it!"

- - - - - - - - - - -

"Naminé, don't."

"Let me go, Riku!" she cried out, her pleas going unheard by the blonde boy, who was now fighting Axel. Number Eight. Naminé remembered the pyrokinetic from Castle Oblivion, and she liked him the most out of all the Organization members there. "They can't fight!"

The silver-haired man eyed her curiously. "And why not?"

"Because!" she paused. Actually, she had no idea why, but her gut was telling her that they should not be fighting each other. "I don't know!" she yelled, frustrated, slumping in his arms.

She could only watch as the two duked it out down in the sandlot, from her vantage point on one of the buildings. Time froze earlier, and she almost panicked when she saw that boy Vivi turn into a Dusk. However, immediately after, Riku and DiZ appeared in a swish of data, and luckily Roxas was too preoccupied with the Dusks to notice. DiZ, she admitted, was annoyed, and that was an understatement.

The antivirus software had not failed, it turned out. Somebody had been hacking systematically into the system, and DiZ had a vague idea who it was. Organization XIII. They were intent on getting their youngest back, it seemed.

DiZ had immediately inputted the Keyblade loading sequence once Riku had found out Naminé was missing.

And now Axel was there. Here.

Her head now had a massive headache.

Such a nice day.

DiZ made a derisive noise, and disappeared in a vortex of data, only to appear once again behind Roxas.

Axel snorted, and glared with pure hatred at the red-cloaked man. "_So it was you_." He then threw the chakram right at DiZ, and Naminé muffled a scream.

"Ssshh," Riku said in her ear. "DiZ is still back at the terminal. He never takes the chance of uploading himself directly into the simulation, so calm down."

The chakram went through in a swirl of data, and Axel frowned slightly, as if he was anticipating it.

DiZ turned to Roxas, who was looking quite bewildered now. Another major understatement.

"_Roxas, this man speaks nonsense!" _he said loudly, speaking from one corner of the Struggle arena.

_"Roxas, don't let him decieve you!" _Axel said just as loudly, pleading.

Riku made a strangled noise, before releasing his hold on Naminé. The flaxen-haired girl looked over her shoulder to find the silver-haired Wielder with a pained expression on his face.

"What is it?" she asked. She had never seen Riku like this before.

He turned away, walking over to the other side of the small rooftop and leaning on the railing. Naminé followed and peered up at him; there was something in his gaze that made her spine crawl.

"It's just..." Riku trailed off, looking up into the sunset sky.

"What?"

"They...really shouldn't be fighting," he said tersely. "Roxas and Axel were best friends. Until I brought him here, and you...well, you chained his memories."

She stiffened, and when her voice came out, it was barely a whisper. "Is that true?"

"I never lie, Naminé."

She bit her lip, and leaned on the railing to support herself. So she was the cause of why they were fighting now. Axel was the only one who remembered everything, and he was dead set on getting his best friend back. It must be painful, having to take your best friend down.

Riku choked, and his fists curled around the smooth steel of railing.

Naminé stole a glance at him, and he opened his mouth hesitantly. "Also, Nam...you and Roxas...you don't remember, don't you? Roxas...he ---"

"Frustrating," DiZ said loudly, as he appeared in the usual swirl of data, cutting Riku short. The silver-haired Wielder immediately clammed up, and Naminé dearly wished that DiZ would just go away. Preferably now. "Number Eight is a persistent Nobody, I must say."

"Riku," she whined, but Riku shot her a look that told her to keep quiet.

"Now, let's go," the mummified man snapped his fingers, and Naminé lost herself amongst the crowd's cheers as they downloaded themselves out.

What was Riku going to tell her?

- - - - - - - - - - -

Roxas' tongue curled up around his lips as he pried off the green crystal. It was stuck fast with some kind of super glue, and it took a few minutes (with a lot of painful nail-prying) to get it off. Heaving a sigh of relief, he tossed the crystal to Pence, who gingerly caught it.

He then picked off the blue crystal with no trouble at all, and curled his fingers around it before holding it up to the sun.

"As promised," he said faintly, gazing into the cerulean blue.

Behind him, Pence did the same. "Thanks a ton, Roxas!"

Hayner and Ollete followed suit, with the blonde boy saying, "One more treasure for us to share."

Roxas allowed himself a smile. The crystals were distilled from far-flung Materia alcoves, and only one of each color was found in the entire world, since it had been formed long ago. It had no special properties, but they sparkled in any light. It was also a nice keepsake, and now that the Struggle trophy was his, he could, theoretically, do anything with it.

"I've got a present too..." Olette said slowly, and Roxas turned around, one foot resting backwards on the ledge. "...for all of us."

She brought out four bars of Sea-Salt ice cream. Inwardly, Roxas cheered as he got his own. Those cold bars of creamy goodness were the absolute best. He stepped backwards, and stumbled on the ledge.

Which was not a good thing.

He leant backwards, and fell, blacking out as images danced through his head. Not only images, but videos. He wondered if it was basis enough to declare himself legally insane.

_A copper-haired girl and a brunette_

_happy cheery smiley and fake_

"Hey Kairi! Wait up!"

"--feel like going out into the island--"

_what the heck what island what's happening to me_

Roxas felt as light as a feather, wind rushing through his hair and feeling weightless. It was like he was watching a moive; somebody else's life was playing right before his eyes, and he was a silent watcher, not really wanted, but not really hated.

_this place is familiar_

"--remember those boys who used to hang out--"

"Riku?"

_who are they talking about_

_why does it feel like I know who they are talking about_

"--and the other boy?"

_it's him it's him come on you have to remember_

"Are you sure you didn't make him up...?"

"Naminé?"

Roxas blinked, and blinked some more when he cauught a glimpse of the auburn-haired girl, who had fallen to her knees in a headache. Probably a nastly one, judging from her expression. Incredibly... "Naminé...?" he reached out a hand. "What's happening to me?"

The girl's voice echoed in his head, and he was suddenly sure that she wasn't the flaxen-haired girl. "Who are you? And that's not my name. I'm Kairi."

_kairi Kairi Kairi make a promise with me Kairi_

The name echoed in his head, and Roxas was suddenly familiar with her. "Kairi...I know you." He paused, struggling to remember why. "You're that girl he likes."

_He? who the hell is he? and why do you care?_

"Who?" Kairi pleaded. "Please, a name!"

He blinked. "I'm Roxas."

She let out a little laugh. "Okay, Roxas, but can you tell me _his_ name?"

Suddenly all Roxas could do was watch as a voice from the back of his head broke free and reached out. The voice, that voice, that one that made all of this feel familiar. It was like watching a show that he wasn't even invited to.

"You don't remember my name?" Roxas, the one that wasn't Roxas, said playfully. "Thanks a lot, Kairi! Okay, I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an 'S'!"

And then it hit him. It hit the both of them, and Roxas was the only one who continued falling. While Kairi was on her island, her brunette friend helping her up from the warm ground, the memory of a boy refreshed in her mind, Roxas was still falling.

Falling down, down, endlessly down, with a name etching itself in searing letters in his mind.

_I know who you are and I know who you will be and I know--_

Sora.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

again, sorry for not updating for so long.

Ah.

_read_&**review**

luffs, numina-naminé.


	13. Fifth Day

Yay! I'M ALIIIVE! I finally recaptured my silver-haired muse, Riku! I now have him duct-taped to a chair! Yes!

So anyway. Can anyone please explain to me where people keep their weapons? I mean, the Keyblade I can understand; the Keyblade Masters can summon them and everything. But how about Roxas' Struggle bat? Where does he keep it when he goes to Sunset Terrace? Somebody help me here, I'm confused.

And. This is long. Seven Wonders of Twilight Town _plus_ the infamous 'better left unsaid' scene.

I'd be doing the novelization of KHII if I owned Kingdom Hearts. Ahhuh.

----------------------

**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

----------------------

The**Fifth**_Day_

_----------------------_

_I've been having weird thoughts lately..._

_like...is any of this for real...or not?_

_An island, a small island, filled with dreams of new land and---_

Kairi?

_parchment in glass, memories in ink, darkness in our hearts_

A letter...I wrote it to the boy yester---

_me or him?_

I'll find him. One day---

_how come somebody cares for him so?_

---we made a promise. Something important---

_Chain of memories is broken, links scattered on the sands of magic_

Wow, I hope he gets it.

_A sigh, a smile_

He will. Starts with an 'S'. Right, So---

_falling and falling with nothing to hold on to_

_the light is gone_

_my light is gone_

_my memories are broken_

Eyelids snapped open, and stormy blue eyes stared warily at the ceiling. Roxas palmed his forehead and sighed, looking out his bedroom window. "I'm dreaming..."

But as he swung his feet over the side of the bed, a nagging thought filled his mind.

"But which parts...were the dream?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Come on...I know you're there..." Naminé mumbled, staring fixatedly at the computer screen. She, DiZ, and Riku had concluded that if Organization XIII didn't get their youngest back, they were going to destroy him, judging by the way they had sent Axel.

But were they so sadistic to send Roxas' best friend to kill him...?

She suddenly shifted forward on her seat, gleefully watching the username _VIII_ appear on the Networking panel. "Yes!" she yelled out loud, punching the air triumphantly.

Riku suddenly appeared at the basement door, looking quite apprehensive. "What?"

"They took the bait!" she exclaimed, tapping a few keys to hide her own username.

He tilted his head curiously. "Are you sure you can handle this?"

She nodded fervently and threw Riku a rare smile. "When it comes to Roxas, I'd do anything."

Naminé felt the black-coated man walk up behind her and place a gloved hand on the backrest of her computer chair. She opened the monitor on her left, clicked an icon, and out popped a window on the current happenings on Twilight Town.

"..._It's like...the Seven Wonders of Twilight Town,_" Pence was saying, gesturing his hands wildly to get his point across.

Hayner grinned, nodding. "_We should investigate those for our school project! Pence, you're a genius!_"

She smiled approvingly, and waited for VIII to start hacking. Sure enough, lines of code burst up into the screen, tampering with DiZ's simulation of Twilight Town.

She had uploaded herself earlier into the simulation. She then started spreading around supernatural rumors around the town, thinking that if Organization XIII caught wind of this, they would think this would be a prime opportunity to take Roxas back without being too obvious. But when they started hacking into the system, Naminé would be able to study how they did it and, if she was lucky, figure out how to stop them. They were _not_ killing Roxas, thank you very much.

She looked back up into the Twilight Town monitor. Pence and Roxas were walking down into the Central Station. "_The time has come!_" Pence said, "_Our hunt for the seven wonders begins!_"

Roxas grinned bemusedly.

Olette and Hayner suddenly walked into view.

"_Whoa! Find new rumors already?_"

"_Nothing on Market Street..._"

VIII had suddenly shifted gears and started reprogramming a part of Sunset Hill's boundaries. This was one of the rumors Naminé had spread around.

She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath, fingers poised above the keyboard.

They're taking Roxas back only over her dead and fading body.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Roxas stared out the train window, watching the orange-tinged scenery roll by. He still couldn't get his mind off yesterday. Well, Pence _had_ told him he _almost_ fell off the station tower, but Roxas knew full well that he _did_ fall.

He certainly didn't imagine talking to that auburn-haired girl. And he most certainly didn't imagine a voice, something that wasn't really his voice, speaking and reaching out to her. Putting his head in his hands he struggled to remember.

There was a bottle. Yeah...set adrift on the ocean by..."Kairi..." he mumbled, and he involuntarily felt a stab of longing at the general region of his heart. This Kairi was someone he deeply cherished...only thing was, he had never met her before.

He heard rustling, and he looked up in time too see Olette holding her yellow crystal up into the light, in an unspoken sign of friendship. Seconds later both Hayner and Pence had brought out their own.

Roxas immediately set to find his own crystal, but no matter where he looked, it seemed that it had disappeared...and he made sure to put it in his pocket last night!

No matter. He was sure this was one of the 'weird' things that had been happening to him lately.

In fact, this week had just been so weird he wanted to throw up.

He slumped back into his chair and started fiddling with his wristband absentmindedly. Way to go, Fate. Ruin the last week of summer vacation. Sure, every teen dreaded the end of summer vacation, but there was this nagging feeling at the pit of his stomach about it. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, to say the very least. Like...a mix of nervousness and fear and loneliness...and he had no idea where it came from.

The train shuddered to a halt, and Hayner immediately bolted out, being the competitive guy that he always was. Olette rushed past them, and Roxas exchanged grins with Pence. Knowing the two, this'd end up more of a date than anything else.

Roxas yawned as he and the photographer started walking. "Huh?"

The ebony-haired boy tilted his head curiously.

"Aren't these the steps you talked about?" Roxas continued, peering warily at the sandstone stairs. "The ones that count different going up and down?"

For some reason a sheepish grin worked itself onto Pence's face, and he scratched his head. "Ummm...actually, it's the stupidest thing ever, but..."

"What?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Rai's the one who counted. He's like, "Every time I count, it's different, Y'KNOW?" Ha ha ha ha!"

A mental image of the broad-shouldered lackey filled Roxas' mind. He resisted the urge to throw up his hands in dismay. It was well-known in Twilight Town that Rai wasn't exactly the brightest in math (or in anything else, for that matter). "So..." he paused, almost pitying Rai, "He just counted wrong?"

Pence nodded.

He sighed.

"Hey," the photographer punched his shoulder playfully. "No worries."

Roxas laced his hands behind his head, but immediately took them down. He had never done that before, nor was he the type of person to do so. It was done on an impulse, and from the mannerisms of somebody else. Arrrgh. What was happening to him?

"Here's the deal," Pence said, as they paused on Sunset Terrace. "I'll hang back for a second while I write the thing about the steps. Go ahead and check out the second wonder," he brought out a map, and tapped it with a finger, "Which is right here."

He nodded, grinning. "Be sure to put in that Rai was the one who counted."

Pence grinned back wickedly, and waved him off.

Roxas sprinted off, in the direction where his ebony-haired friend had pointed him. He skidded to a stop in front of a..._dead end_? He raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly made this street unusual.

_whap!_

A two-foot wide white ball hit him squarely in the stomach, knocking him back on his feet and the breath out of him.

"What the--"

_whoosh!_

This time, Roxas barely managed to avoid a second ball, and it whizzed by right above his head. He whirled around to see where the ball had went, but for some reason, it had disappeared without a ---

_whap!_

Another ball hit the side of his head.

Gritting his teeth and the slightest bit pissed off, Roxas whipped out his Struggle bat. He was internally grateful that he had brought the blue foam bat, thinking that he had a sparring session with Hayner later that day. Using the bat to knock away all the white balls he couldn't dodge in time, he managed to stand up.

Ten hits, two Potions, twenty-six dodges, a bajillion balls, and thirty minutes later, he had managed to get near enough the wall to inspect where the hell the balls were coming from.

The bricks melded together into a dark hole or something, and less then a second later seven balls shot out at the same time. He only managed to duck in time, and he saw one of the white balls smash into a crate before disappearing. To his horror, the crate had been shattered into wooden splinters. Somehow, the balls had begun to come out faster, and apparently, hit harder. He spun around to deflect another ball. Roxas' hands shook from the effort.

"Oh!"

Roxas opened his mouth to yell for Pence to get out of the way, but miraculously, the moment the photographer arrived, the wall fell silent.

Pence brightened up. "It's just you, Roxas. Were you throwing a ball? That ball flew out of nowhere and totally startled me. Hey, I know! This explains one of those seven wonders!"

_Riiiight. Forget the fact that I'm holding a bat, looking remotely harassed by balls that fly out of nowhere._

Roxas shrugged, knowing that if he told Pence that the balls came out of the wall, the boy'll never believe him. Ah. Let it be. S' long as the balls started coming out, fine.

"Anyway, go ahead and check out the next one," the raven-haired boy said, fumbling in his pockets for a pen. "I'll write this one down. The next one's right there..." he pointed with the black pen at the entrance to the tunnels. "They say there's always a voice echoing off the walls..."

Roxas sighed resignedly, and, clutching his Struggle bat, trudged onwards.

The tunnels were, mercifully, well-lighted. Streams of water ran down the walls, and his shadow flickered across the brick walls.

"_Ha!_"

He paused. Was that ---

"_Ha! Hiyahhh!_"

Okay. That _was_ a voice.

Roxas sprinted on, cross pendant bouncing from the zipper of his shirt, towards the source of the voice. Something around the corner cast its shadow on the opposite wall, and he crept stealthily towards it, only to find...

"Vivi!?"

What the hell?

Blinking rapidly, he ran towards the small Black Mage, clutching his hold on his Struggle Bat as he did. He was still slightly wary of Vivi, after his display of unexpected fighting prowess at the Struggle Championships.

Three feet away from the Black Mage, Roxas stopped dead in his tracks and watched in disbelief as Vivi shimmered---

And split. And split some more. Into no less than ten carbon-copies of himself.

He could feel a pounding headache come up as he braced himself for still _another_ skirmish. Gritting his teeth, he pounded forward and slashed blindly with his bat -- sure, he knew how to defend himself; he remembered getting an A in Sword Handling and Maneuvering, but right now he was irritated, and wanted to end it quickly --, right through the horde of Vivi-clones.

Problem was, every single one of those Vivi-clones had the flexibility of the Vivi Seifer had battled yesterday, thus making them very hard to hit. Roxas cursed under his breath as he ducked low to avoid a kick. Bracing himself on the ground, he swung the bat in a wide arc and hit several clones at once, giving him some space to use a Potion. He then chucked the empty Potion bottle at an incoming clone, hitting it squarely in the head and making it disappear in a swirl of data.

He made a mental note about the lethal use of Potion-bottles for later reference.

Yelling frustratedly, he then threw out his Struggle bat in the general direction of the clones. And miraculously, just as suddenly as Vivi had split, the clones disseminated into data and vanished.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he stood, alone, in the tunnel. Sparkles and smoke he could believe; disappearing into data? No. No way. What was going _on_ in ---

"What is it, Roxas?"

Roxas let out a sound that was supposed to be a yell but turned out to be a sort of half-frightened squeak. He whirled around only to see...

"Oh, did you need this, Roxas?" Vivi paused, holding out Roxas' Struggle Bat, probably staring at the expression on Roxas' face. "Planning on getting in some practice, I bet..." he trailed off, cocking his head slightly to the side and giving the blonde boy a curious look.

"Er...no, it's just that..." he swallowed, unable to come up with adequate words to describe what had happened earlier. Vivi would never believe what had happened. "...there were so many of you..." he finished lamely, spreading his palms open wide.

"Huh? So many of me?" the Black Mage shook his head slowly. "I don't get it."

Roxas was about to say "Me neither," but he was stopped short when Vivi tossed the Struggle Bat in his direction. He caught it easily and let it lean against his side.

"Anyway," Vivi waved a hand dismissively, "I'm done with this, Roxas. Take your time."

Roxas wisely held his tongue and walked out. He was much too confused to do anything else, anyway.

Out in the sunset light, once he walked out of the tunnels, he met up with Pence, who was panting quite heavily. "So...that mystery voice was just Vivi practicing," he managed to get out. The raven-haired photographer probably ran the wrong way into the tunnels and got lost or something equally trivial.

Roxas was much too far gone into his own thoughts to comprehend any normal plausible explanation for what had just happened. He paused, turned to Pence, and sighed. "Listen, there were a whole bunch of Vivi clones just a minute ago..."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"What _are_ you doing, child?"

Naminé pursed her lips and typed frantically on the keyboard, her eyes steeled on to the nearest monitor, where Roxas was currently fighting his own data-created shadow self. Which, disturbingly, was based off a real one. "What does it look like?" She asked sarcastically, tired of DiZ's constant prying into her business.

Apparently, the mummified man had enough of _her_ too. She was suddenly jolted to attention by a fist slamming down onto the steel panel next to her, and she stared, slack-jawed, at DiZ.

"I have had _enough_ of this nonsense, Naminé," he ground out, breathing even heavier with his mask on. "You have done enough meddling with Roxas, child, you have almost revealed our and the other side's existence to him!"

"Roxas has a right to _know_!" she cried out in return, spinning around in her chair and getting to her feet. She knew that she could never feel anger, but what was she feeling now?

"He does _not_!" DiZ argued back, amber eyes flicking in the direction of the monitor and at the blonde boy fighting within. "Nobodies don't _have_ rights!"

"How can you be so sure?" she yelled bitterly, ignoring Riku's motions for her to stop. "You're _not_ a Nobody, DiZ. You don't know how it feels..."

Riku slapped a hand to his forehead.

DiZ laughed. "Child, Nobodies don't _feel_. Now, Riku and I have saved you from Castle Oblivion, therefore, _we_ have the right to tell you what to ---"

"You didn't save me; Axel did."

Naminé's eyes widened and she lifted two fingers over her lips, wondering where that had came from. DiZ and Riku stared at her unblinkingly, and complete, uncomfortable silence reigned for five minutes.

Then the platinum-haired Wielder, in the guise of Xehanort, coughed before shooting her a question. "What?"

She bit her lip, sat down back in her chair, and swiveled it so that her back was to them. Tapping once again on the keyboard, she repeated what she had said earlier, the memory of it flashing through her mind like an old movie. "Axel saved me when Marluxia fell, when Sora defeated him," she said quietly, piecing together code as Roxas and Pence explored the fifth Wonder.

"I had just shown Sora his broken chain of memories. He then, because of the strain on his heart, fell asleep, like he is now. Castle Oblivion was fading, much like Marluxia and Vexen and even Larxene," her breath hitched.

She ground her teeth together and tried to bite back hot tears; hot tears that she knew were for dear friends. How those Nobodies were her 'dear' friends, she had no idea, but she just _knew_ they were. She continued typing furiously, watching as the fifth Wonder, a bouncing bag, turned out to be dog, which really was a Dusk in disguise.

"I held him, in my white room. Sora," Cerulean blue eyes stared intently at the screen, and at the lines of code at the other monitor. "I didn't know I could portal yet."

Riku made a derisive noise, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw DiZ throw the silver-haired Wielder a glare.

Naminé ignored them. "Then Axel suddenly appeared. He opened a portal and just...threw us in. We ended up in..._that_ world. The Crossroads. And that," she paused, and tapped the Enter key twice, prompting the antivirus to get rid of the Dusk in the system. "Is where you, DiZ, and King Mickey found us."

"You didn't save me," she repeated in a cracked voice, resolutely turning her back on them. "Axel did. Stop lying to me."

"Your whole _existence_ is a lie, Naminé," DiZ burst out exasperatedly.

"I don't -- "

"Because you keep lying to her."

They fell silent once more, but this time, the subject of their stares were on Riku, who had bowed his head and was leaning against the doorframe. DiZ gaped with his mouth open, much like a dying fish.

Naminé stared at DiZ, then at Riku. She repeated the procedure three more times before opening her mouth to speak.

"Riku, wha--"

DiZ was suddenly at her side, heaving her bodily from the computer chair. "Out, Naminé," he said in a calm fashion, but the heaving breaths he took indicated otherwise.

She squirmed in his grip, and flung out her arms at him, trying to scratch his mask off. "Get your hands off me, DiZ," she said flatly, trying to stare him down.

"Get off the chair and out of the room," he repeated in a monotone, trying to make her release the deathgrip on the plastic handle.

"Let _go_ of me!" Naminé shrieked back, flailing her arms. A quick glance at the monitor told her that VIII was quickly gaining on the code-making business, and if she didn't do something soon, the simulation would be infected with another larger virus.

"_Naminé!_" DiZ bellowed, but she stared back defiantly at him. She didn't possess the emotion guilt, not unless she wanted to. "_Get out!_"

"_NO!_"

"Naminé, please," Riku shifted from his position on the door and walked up towards them, wrenching DiZ's gloved hand from her arm and placing his own hand on her shoulder. "Just...leave. Please?"

She raised her gaze to meet the silver-haired Wielder's, and she was struck by the haunted look in his amber eyes. She knew if she stared long enough, she'd gradually catch glimmers of vivid aquamarine. And in that vivid aquamarine would be swirls of guilt and even more guilt.

What _was_ this guilt...?

"Please?" Now Riku whispered this last word with such pain that Naminé cringed.

Why? What was DiZ hiding that Riku didn't want her to find out? What were the things they had already lied to her about? What the hell did Riku _mean_?

Tears sprung to her eyes as she suddenly got to her feet. "Fine. I know when I'm not wanted," she spat, turning on her heels, but not before punching in a combination of keys she had memorized by heart.

_CtrlAltDel_

"Naminé!" She heard DiZ exclaim, but she had already sprinted into the next room and into the data-uploader. They had only told her to go, not _where_ to go.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sunset Hill lived up to its name and more. It had the most spectacular view of the setting sun in the whole Twilight District. Hues of warm orange, brilliant yellow, and crimson red blended flawlessly with each other, and indigo frayed with touches of pink and sky-blue completed the postcard-worthy view of the great molten ball of light known as the setting sun.

However, different can be said for the quality of _pavement_ on Sunset Hill. Roxas had spent the past twenty minutes shifting on his stomach, trying to find the most comfortable position the sheet of asphalt can offer. Why they decided on lying prone on the pavement rather than just leaning on the fence, he had no idea. He just kind of...went along with it.

He focused instead on a clump of grass to his left. It was more interesting than peering out into the green mist that surrounded Twilight's boundary, anyway.

_Fascinating...blades of green chlorophyll...ahhh..._Roxas' mind sniggered, and he mentally slapped himself.

"We've gotta make it to the beach next year," Olette said all of a sudden, raising her head and startling Hayner, whose hand was frozen in the incriminating gesture of stroking her hair.

"Y-Yeah," the blonde boy quickly covered up, setting his hand down and grinning. "We better get jobs before the second vacation starts."

Pence tapped Roxas' shoulder, and he looked over to the photographer's side. He shifted position so that Olette, who was on his left, couldn't see the square of glossy paper the raven-haired boy was brandishing under his chin.

Roxas choked back a snicker when he saw it was of Olette and Hayner, taken just a few seconds ago. Hayner's hand was hovering just above her hair, and the photograph clearly portrayed the blush on Hayner's cheeks as he stared at Olette.

How Pence managed to snap a picture without them hearing the _click_ of the camera was beyond him.

Hayner made a derisive noise. "Hey--"

"Good afternoon, slackers."

Roxas hurriedly shifted position and slipped the photograph into Pence's hands, and it disappeared into his camera case with ease. He looked around in time to see Seifer come up the hill.

"What are you doing up here?" The blonde boy asked, a malicious tone in his voice.

Hayner had sat up and faced Seifer, eyes narrowed. "What do you care?"

"I don't," he replied nonchalantly, and he smirked. This was the time Roxas dearly wanted to take out his Struggle bat and hit him as hard as he could over the head. "Tell me anyway."

"We're waiting for the ghost train," Pence piped up in a hopeful voice; he was probably hopeful that Roxas, Hayner and Seifer would not start a three-way fight. Not at a time so late in the day, anyway.

"Waiting for the ghost train," Seifer repeated mockingly, and he threw his head back in laughter.

Irritated beyond reason, Roxas stood up and gave Seifer the best glare he could. Said glare, when Roxas put it into full effect, could make children of six years and below cry, make small, furry animals scamper and run for their lives, make other people walk out of his way in a ten-foot radius, and send shivers down anybody's spine who was the unfortunate subject of the Look.

A hint of apprehension flashed through Seifer's eyes, but was quickly smoothed over by his customary mask of confidence. "Why does looking at you," he smirked once more, gesturing towards Roxas, "_always_ tick me off?"

"I dunno," Roxas was caught off-guard by his question, and he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "Maybe it's destiny."

Seifer's trenchcoat grazed the pavement slightly as he shifted his weight to one foot, and he furrowed his eyebrows. Roxas could almost say he looked thoughtful. _Almost_. "Destiny..." he paused. "In that case, let's be friends. I don't feel like cooperating with destiny."

(_She did not just do that._)

Roxas blinked. What the hell was that?

(_Riku, she did. It's another one of her modifications to the simulation_.)

Hayner matched Seifer's smirk with one of his own. "When have you ever cooperated with anything?"

(_'I don't feel like cooperating with destiny'...she's smart, telling Roxas through Seifer...don't go along with this simulation..._)

The blonde boy shrugged, and touched a fist to his chest, in a sort of mock-salute. He then spun around on his heels and started to walk away.

(_Ah, but the boy won't get the meaning...Roxas thinks much too deeply._)

"Seifer!" Olette suddenly called, and Roxas turned around to stare at her. Hayner was regarding her with a scandalized expression on his face, while Pence was watching the entire scene with a small smile.

The blonde boy heard his name and looked over his shoulder. "I know. Tomorrow," he waved a hand dismissively, and disappeared down the hill.

"Look!" Roxas suddenly exclaimed, running over to the rickety wooden fence and leaning over.

A one-car train was speeding along the tracks, painted with a design Roxas had never seen before. It was midnight blue with gold highlights. Stars and crescent-moons decorated the sides, and the swirling green mist seemed to follow it as it chugged through the tracks below them.

"It's really true..." he murmured fervently, peering at the train as it vanished from their line of sight. "And there's really no one aboard!" Turning from the fence, he regarded his friends with an excited grin. "What's the catch? There's gotta be a catch, right?"

The three exchanged glanced wordlessly, and Roxas took it as a negative.

"Then..." he paused disbelievingly, "It's real? Let's go to the station!"

- - - - - - - - - - -

Naminé cringed.

And winced for good measure, as she watched Roxas lead on his friends to a train that only he could see. It was at times like this that she wanted to kill DiZ for making the blonde boy look so...crazy. Mental-asylum crazy.

"Let's go in!" Roxas said happily, starting to walk forward, but Hayner stopped him.

"Um..." Hayner stared at Roxas with an unreadable expression on his face. "You'll get hurt."

Roxas looked back. "Huh?"

Of course, this was the time DiZ chose to delete the train simulation, letting Roxas believe that there really wasn't anything there. Letting him believe that maybe, just maybe, he was seeing things.

"_The train will be arriving shortly,_" an overhead speaker announced, and the real (in a manner of speaking--it was still a simulation) train, the orange one, pulled up into the station. Fuu and Rai, along with a few other passengers, walked out.

Hayner gestured to Roxas. "C'mon."

However, Roxas was too wrapped up in his thoughts to process anything else that had been happening. Naminé could almost hear the cogs of his mind spin furiously. "A train came from the beach. There was no driver, right?"

Pence sighed exasperatedly. "Let's go..."

"Right?" The blonde boy spread a hand helplessly in Olette's direction, but the brunette shook her head sadly in the negatory.

Hayner groaned, and pushed Roxas onto the train. As soon as the quartet of friends disappeared into their train compartment, Naminé broke out of the bushes where she had been hiding and sprinted into the next compartment, making sure that Roxas didn't see her. After all, since the blonde boy was the only _real_ thing in the simulation, he would be the only one to notice that she had uploaded herself in.

The train ride was made in uncomfortable silence, since Hayner, Pence and Olette kept stealing worried looks at Roxas, who was staring out of the window with a frustrated look on his face. It had taken all of Naminé's self-control not to just walk up to the boy and tell him _it wasn't his fault_.

But the sight of Roxas talking to thin air might alarm his friends even more, so...

Naminé debated with herself all the way through Market Street, as she followed the circle of friends stealthily through the cobbled pathways. She _was_ a Nobody, after all, and she did possess the unnatural reflexes of one.

"Let's go home," Hayner started, and groaned frustratedly, "And work on the paper."

"The rumors were bogus," Pence said flatly, pretending to write on an imaginary piece of paper. "The end."

Olette, ever the optimist, just sighed and gave a wan smile, making Hayner blush. "We can still make it sound good if we write about all the work we did."

"But..." Roxas suddenly spoke up, expression thoughtful, "What about the last one--the seventh wonder?"

"Who cares?" Hayner blurted out, but Roxas ran a hand through his spiky hair and turned to Pence.

"I do," he said determinedly. "C'mon, Pence."

Naminé felt a warm feeling inadvertedly spread across her cheeks. A blush...that...that was what it was called, right?

The seventh wonder was a rumor that she had spread herself; although Roxas had no idea what it was, that rumor was about her. Naminé. And the fact that the blonde boy had said that the rumor mattered to _him_...

Another blush sprinkled crimson on her face.

"Whatever," Hayner growled, waving a hand dismissively and walking away.

Olette stole a glance at the Hayner's retreating figure, before glancing at the blonde spiky-haired boy. "Roxas..."

Pence suddenly sighed, apparently tired of fighting against Roxas' determination. "It's at that haunted mansion."

The brunette and the raven-haired photographer followed Hayner out of Market Street. Roxas held his gaze of them for a good five minutes before shaking his head resignedly and heading in the general direction of the Old Mansion.

As soon as the he was out of Market Street, Naminé opened a portal in the brick wall on which she had been leaning on, and portalled over to the dilapidated simulation of the headquarters of this whole illusion. Roxas must've run with his Nobody speed without realizing it, because just as she scrambled up the stairs and peered out of the white curtains of her room, the blonde was already coming up the grass walkway leading to the locked gate.

She watched as Pence came up behind the other boy, and they talked about something that made Roxas cringe.

All of sudden, Roxas turned his stormy-blue eyes up into her window, and she quickly averted her gaze as if she was looking at something distant. Anything to make it look like she wasn't staring at him. That would be embarassing.

When Roxas turned back to say something to Pence, she slapped her forehead frustratedly as she realized something. Roxas _wasn't_ supposed to see her! Darn her and her shyness!

The ebony-haired photographer gestured with a hand in her general direction. She froze, but she decided she was far too deep in this to stop. She _had_ already pissed DiZ off, so why not go for the whole package? Roxas needed to find out.

Using her own abilities, rather that her programming and simulating prowess, she reached out to his mind and broke the simulation's illusion. DiZ can try anything, but he couldn't touch the chain of illusion she wove, simply because it wasn't made of code, but rather, of the fragile web of memories.

Roxas looked up the window.

Naminé closed her eyes, and fervently concentrated.

(_white walls white room white table white paper_)

(_A redhead and a star-fruit in her hand_)

"Roxas..." she whispered, pressing her hand against the glass and locking eye contact with the boy.

"Naminé?" he replied, as clear as if he was standing beside her.

(_Fiery red and upswing of gold in night-black cloaks_)

"This...is me?" Roxas said curiously. "...and Axel's here too."

She took a deep breath. Nevermind if DiZ was probably going to kill her after this, not that she was alive, anyway. "You _are_ best friends..."

"Very funny."

"Don't you want to know the truth..." She paused, "About who you really are?"

She got the sensation of Roxas tilting his head thoughtfully. "No one knows me better than me."

"Of course." She let the curtain she was holding up fall, and she walked back to the white table and fingered with the crayons scattered on the white paper. She had just realized it would take a lot of convincing on her part to make Roxas believe that everything of this was a lie.

"But..." Roxas' voice echoed once again. "I don't get what's been happening lately."

(_A duck and a dog and a boy with a key_)

Naminé bit her lip. This was hard, remembering memories that wasn't her own. She sighed and started tracing circles on the table. "You know these three, don't you?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They're from the dreams."

_The dreams of Sora's memories,_ she thought sadly. "About a year ago, some things happened, and I had to take apart the memories chained together in Sora's heart," A crayon rolled off the table and she bent down to pick it up,"But now... I'm putting them all back exactly the way they were. It's taken me a long time, but pretty soon Sora will be his old self again..." her breath hitched, but she continued explaining nevertheless. "The process has been affecting you, too, Roxas."

_Because you are his Nobody._

"You mean..." he said hesitantly, "The dreams?"

_Your dreams are the pieces of his memories._

She started tracing another circle on the white marble table once more. "Yes...You and Sora are connected. And...in order for Sora to become completely whole again... He needs you."

(_Upswing of gold, cloak of black, spikes of mahogany, outfit of white_)

"Me?" he asked uncertainly. The small tremor in his voice made her cringe. "What for?"

"You..." she choked out, her finger tracing the same area of marble over and over. "Hold half of what he is...he needs you, Roxas," she repeated, wondering why it sounded like she was on Sora's side.

But then again, she was. Her job was to piece together the Keyblade Master's memory. Roxas was just a tool. But why did she feel so...reluctant to do it?

Naminé bowed her head slightly, and in a split second, in the circle she had been tracing repeatedly on the table, a small star-shaped charm appeared in a flash of light.

She squeaked slightly, surprised. It was the paopu-fruit charm that had been with her ever since. As far as she could remember she had left it beside the keyboard in the Pod Room; how had it been uploaded into the system?

Something nagged at her, however. Something told her that the charm wasn't made of data, but of the glass beauty that was memories.

"Naminé?"

She blinked, and in an instant, she had dropped the charm into her lap. She looked up, only to see Roxas peering curiously at her, from the other side of the room. She fought back the urge to gasp. Had her powers really gotten that far? Had she really been strong enough to break the simulation and bring the boy into her white room?

"Naminé...who are you?"

She was jolted out of her thoughts by his sincere question, and she smoothed her face into an impassive mask as she faced Roxas directly. "I'm a witch with power over Sora's memories and those around him," she said flatly, hoping that Roxas wouldn't think of her lesser because of it.

The blonde cocked his head. "A witch?"

She allowed herself a smile, and underneath the table, she fingered the paopu charm. It somehow gave her comfort. "That's what DiZ called me." Was she just imagining things, or was that a flash of anger that crossed the boy's face? "But I don't know why I have this power...I just do. I'm not even sure there's a right way for me to use it."

_Ah, but Naminé, you do know,_ a voice at the back of head reminded her. _Remember? Roxas loved asking it over and over again. How come his name is just Sora with an X, while yours is so different from your Other's, Kai---_

"Hmmm..." he shrugged, leaning his elbows on the table. "Can't help you there."

_Don't you remember? You and Roxas. You and--_

She pursed her lips and told the voice at the back of her head to stop. It didn't. And the nagging feeling that she was missing something gnawed at her mind.

Roxas looked back thoughtfully at her drawing of him and Axel, and he laughed softly. "It's funny...Suddenly I feel like I don't know myself at all..." He then turned to face her, stormy blue eyes darkening and his gaze serious. "I guess I would like to know. What do you know about me..." he gestured with his hand helplessly, "That I don't?"

She returned his gaze to the best of her abilities. She knew she could never lie. She knew Roxas deserved to know the truth, the truth common to all Nobodies like them. "You..." she cringed as his intense stare bored through her own eyes, "You were never supposed to exist, Roxas."

She let the sentence dissolve into the still air between them, let the message sink into the boy's mind. How this must sound to him...

"What...?" He leant forward, eyebrows furrowed. She fought the urge to lean over and smooth them. "How could you even say such a thing...even if it were true?"

"I'm sorry," Naminé looked away, but from the corner of her eye, she could see Roxas reach out a tentative hand to her. She bit her lip and let her choppy hair hide the blush dancing on her cheeks. "I guess some things really are better left unsaid."

"Na--"

And just like that, he was gone.

The edges of her room shimmered data, and she knew at once that DiZ had broken through her memory-barriers.

She bowed her head, took out the charm, and held it close to where her heart should've been.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"Tomorrow we search the town," Hayner announced, after taking a voracious lick at his Sea-Salt ice cream.

Olette giggled, and drummed her feet against the clock ledge.

"Next day's the fair," Pence added.

"The last day of summer!" the brunette girl chimed in, her jade-green eyes sparkling with amusement as Hayner doubled over in mock-pain and groaned.

"Don't say that! You'll give me an ulcer!"

"Not if you explode from all that ice cream first!" Pence laughed, and soon, the two others were laughing with him.

However, Roxas was too far deep in his own thoughts to join in their joking around. He stared belatedly at his own slowly-melting popsicle. Talking with Naminé, exploring the town, listening to her voice tell his own past...

Telling him that he was never supposed to exist...

Argh.

Summer vacation. He just didn't want it to end, for some reason. He had the eeriest feeling that he would never see his friends again.

Or rather, they would never see _him_ again.

Roxas just knew that tomorrow would not be a good day.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

That was long. No, really.

To all the readers of my stories, this _may_ be my last update for this year. Y'know. Christmas and New Year and everything else. Except for A Christmas Cliché, expect my next update to be in the **first week of January.**

Okay? Okay.

Happy Holidays, everyone!


	14. Sixth Day: I

**A/N: **My muse died, and refused to be revived. Sorry for the hiatus.

Rated T for language. **This is a Namixas, not an Akuroku**. I mean, put yourself in Roxas' shoes, and put your best friend in Axel's shoes. You'd probably feel the same way. :x

It's split into **two** parts, since the Sixth Day is the longest of the Days. I hated this Day the most...like all of the other Roxas fangirls out there. This is the exact reason why I hate DiZ. Xo

**IF YOU ARE A READER OF SOARING ON BROKEN WINGS: **I'll update within this week. I SHALL TRY.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

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The**Sixth**_Day_ - **I**

_----------------------_

"You have to -- she -- "

"No, Riku. You'll never understand. You'll never know. I'm not -- "

"Sora needs Roxas, Kai--"

"_No!_"

"Naminé! _Get back here!_"

- o -

Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?

_Heartless? What the --_

But, if we do beat him and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what's gonna happen to this place? And to us?

_Him...? Who's him? Oh, he's the one with silver--_

All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. You see, darkness is the heart's true essence.

_A...heart? I _don't_ have a ---_

That's not true! The heart may be weak. And sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!

_I don't --_

Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness!

You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!

_But what about me? I'm not of the light nor of the dark I'm just stuck in between she said I was never meant to exist anyway but where do I fit in...?_

_A mouse? Is that...he has a Key--_

Take care of her.

_Aquamarine is sometimes the same as teal...Why does it feel like I'm missing somebody---Cinnamon is to silver as gold is to crim--(-GoT it MeMoRiZeD, Rox?-)_

_!The door is closing! No!_

Remember what you said before? I'm always with you, too. I'll come back to you. I--

_She looks so much like her, _

who_ looks so much like _who?

_Who am I forgetting?_

--promise!

_He promised! Sora promised! Whoever the hell he is, this kid promised and I'm the only--_

I know you will!

_She promised too...wait, who?_

_The stars return and everything returns but Kingdom Hearts is three Keyblade Masters short---_

But, uh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the light?

Hey, have you seen King Mickey?

_Meadows and crossroads and _hell_ my head's starting to hurt..._

I've been to see him.

_The beach inside Kingdom Hearts and wherever it is desolate and cold and just _dark_ dark cloaks dark boots pitch-black hood_

He looks a lot like you.

_No...It's _me_ who looks a lot like him..._

Who are you?

_There's another side to his other story...and that's mine. _

_I'm looking for someone...and because of a boy I have never seen before, I can't find her--_

Where's Sora?

_Who is this someone?_

Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?

_**Shut up.**_

_**Wait.** Was that...**me?**_

Stormy blue cerulean eyes snapped open, and a boy with an upswing of gold sat up in his bed. Roxas had the distinct feeling known as nausea as he swung his legs over the edge, and he was sure that the dizziness was the cause. Yes. He was so dizzy that he had hallucinated himself shifting from one person to another. To that cinnamon-haired kid.

He _was _hallucinating, wasn't he?

Right?

- o -

Something like a year ago, Naminé had sort of liked DiZ.

Half a year ago, she had become quite irritated of the mummified man.

Ten hours ago, Naminé decided that she despised him.

Biting her lip, she gingerly stood up from her white chair, somewhat paranoid that they would hear her footfall. Even though she was positive that the two were on the other side of Twilight Town (and drawing unwanted attention), she knew it was never too wrong to be too careful.

Glancing up at the brunet boy floating inside the open capsule, she cringed.

Who would she save?

If she saved Roxas, if she just pulled him out of the simulation and told him to just go run away and live a normal life...Sora would remain in his suspended state forever. But Roxas would then be happy...and whenever Roxas was happy, she nonfelt-happy too.

If she saved Sora, however, as was intended in the first place, the both of them would live. She doubted Roxas would like being merged with the brunet (she herself was horrified at the thought of returning to her Other -- not after the taste of freedom she enjoyed now), but at least he would live on.

Why did she feel so..._connected_ to the blond, anyway? And the fact that she wasn't supposed to _feel_...Maybe it was her Other's feelings. Maybe her Other had seen this boy before. She was positive she had never seen Roxas before. On the other hand, she had actually spent time with Sora. Heck, she had even been guilty of Kairi over the brunet. She had watched over him for the past year, and had dedicated almost all of her powers to rechaining his broken memories.

But _Roxas..._

Somehow, it didn't seem fair.

- o -

Roxas yawned, taking his hands out of pockets as he turned into the Back Alley. He yawned once more for good measure. It was a bad move, however, as he had yawned in the exact same moment he had lifted up the curtain to the Usual Spot, thus blasting himself with a cloud of dust. Eyes watering and still coughing slightly, he made his way over to his friends, who were somewhere at the rear end, whispering about something.

He yawned again.

"Man, I could not sleep last night..."

He blinked. They didn't usually ignore him like this, not even during the time when he lost the munny for the trip to the beach. "Guys?"

Roxas reached out a hand to clap Hayner on the shoulder, but it just went through.

_OH MAN IT JUST WENT THROUGH _was the first rather coherent thought that went through his mind.Blinking rapidly, he took a confused step back as the trio laughed out loud about something, and ran off; Hayner even passed right through him. Olette and Pence followed the punky blond.

_"You... you were never meant to exist, Roxas."_

Somehow, it didn't surprise him anymore. It just tugged at his heart, this feeling. Was this how it was to not exist? He didn't think he could stand it if Hayner, Pence, Olette, Vivi, or even Seifer lived on without knowing he was there...without remembering that he had shared some great memories with them. He didn't think he could stand just _standing_ there, being a silent observer.

Sighing, he walked forward and picked up a picture lying on the wooden crate. It was a group picture of the Usual Spot Kids, as they jokingly called themselves.

_Was_, for Roxas was no longer there.

**_Is_**, a voice at the back of his head chided him. _It **is** a group picture of the Usual Spot Kids, since you were never meant to be part of them, anyway._

Roxas set the picture back on the crate, eyes slightly moist, and walked away, lifting the curtain open and not minding the dust he left behind.

- o -

Axel never cried, that he knew. Aside from the fact that he was a Nobody, meaning that he couldn't even _feel_ sadness, tears never seemed to belong on his face. He made up for that with the twin teardrops etched underneath his eyes for eternity.

Axel _never_ cried.

Biting his lip, the pyrokinetic walked through the streets of Twilight Town, steps light and unheard. He blamed the hotness behind his eyelids for the scientific fact that there were hundreds of dust particles floating around the Town. Simulated, devoid-of-people and eerily-quiet Town. Said dust got into his eyes, thus making them sting and...

Crap, screw dust.

This wasn't just some movie where the hero would be just so _brave_ and _fearless_ and _unfeeling_, following everything that the director said. He was_ Axel_, and he wasn't flawless; he liked getting himself into trouble, he liked to drink, he liked to set random things on fire, he loved to annoy the living daylights out of Larxene and watch her expressions, he had issues with authority and _damn_, he missed his best friend.

Who he was supposed to take back, dead or alive.

Just because he couldn't feel didn't mean he was a cold killing machine.

He stepped into the a street named the Back Alley, and just in time too; some of the Dusks he had taken with him had cornered the Nobody in question.

Roxas stared at him, a stick held loosely in his clasped hands. Axel stared back.

"Look at what it's come to," he said in a lighthearted tone, trying his best to cover up his cracking voice. "I've been given these icky orders to destroy you -- if you refuse to come back with me."

The blond gave him a halfhearted Look."We're...best friends, right?"

"Sure..." Axel replied, looking around absentmindedly and scratching his head, the fact that he was certainly about to kill his best friend still not settling in. "But I'm not getting turned into a Dusk for..." he paused, blinked, and stared at Roxas in quick succession. His nonexistent heart soared, and an involuntary grin worked itself onto his face. "Wait a sec!" he burst out, spreading his palms excitedly. "You remember now?"

"Y...eah..."

Suddenly all the fatigue from hunting down Roxas for one week straight was gone; he had remembered, oh Creator, Roxas was _back._ "Great!" he could hardly contain himself; maybe Naminé had done something. Maybe her memories had started to come back as well. "But, you know..." he straightened himself up, peering at the blond in earnest. His Nobody instincts told him something was off. "Gotta make sure and all. So, uhh..." He racked his memories for a question only Organization members knew. "What's our boss's name?"

His once-best friend stared.

Axel's shoulders slumped forwards, and he bit his lip. Here he was, given false hope that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have to kill Roxas after all. But no... "Can't believe this..." he sighed sadly, summoning his chakrams and holding them loosely in his fingers.

He gave an unspoken order to the Dusks, and they closed in.

Roxas gave him a Look, and the Keyblade coalesced in his hand. He made quick work of the Dusks (and Axel suddenly berated himself for underestimating Roxas' Keyblade-wielding skills; he should've brought his Assassins instead) before turning on Axel, eyebrows furrowed and a small frown on his lips.

If he left Roxas there, alive but with memories gone, the boy might go berserk. He might side with King Mickey, or worse, with DiZ. Sora would never come back, and he would lose his best friend, not to mention one of the most important assets of the Organization. Their plans would come crashing down.

But with Roxas gone...he did need to gain Xemnas' trust back, after the Oblivion incident...but certainly the Superior didn't expect him to actually...

He **did**, didn't he?

The bastard expected him to pay back for his mistakes, in the worst possible way...

Gritting his teeth, Axel raised a chakram to strike.

And he realized his mistake in only uploading himself into this simulation. DiZ, or some controller, could manipulate his data, no matter how he made sure that he couldn't be downloaded out. He couldn't help but listen as DiZ's -- another bastard -- voice rang throughout the street, telling him that his time had come.

If there was something that would erase Roxas from this world, Axel made sure that it would be his own chakrams, not some stupid thingamajig.

The blonde yelled out the names of his so-called _friends_, and then swiping at his eyes, ran out of the Back Alley, casting a fleeting look at Axel.

And just as that, the bond holding him vanished.

This was one of the moments where the pyrokinetic was extremely appreciative of the fact that he couldn't feel, for he was sure that the crushing sadness coursing through him right now would be amplified tenfold if he had a heart. And he didn't think he would've been able to survive such pain.

"The Roxas I know is long gone..." he whispered to the wind, dismissing his chakrams as he stared at the spot where his best friend had run out.

Roxas had always been running...

...if only the boy hadn't run out on him, on that stormy night. If only he just _stayed_ and hadn't been so persistent. If only...

**If only**

It was, technically, all Roxas' fault. Axel bit his lip in anger; what _authority_ did Roxas have to put him through this? Why did the boy think nobody would miss him? Why did he _go?_

"...fine." Axel turned around, waving a hand and summoning real Dusks, and a few Assassins, for good measure. "I see how it is."

And with that, he portalled away.

- o -

Roxas knew, on the First Day, that this week would not spell out much good for him. That he knew now, running through the Woods and through the broken pillars littering the front of the Old Mansion, with those rubbery _things_ hot on his heels.

He stopped, panting, in front of the rusty steel front gates of the dilapidated Mansion. His breath hitched when he saw the gargantuan lock chained through the steel bars, and wincing, he looked back over his shoulder to catch the sight of a few more of those things spring up.

"Don't call me and then lock me out..." he muttered, glaring at the lock as if the sheer force of his glare would make it open.

Then as if to answer his plea, the image of the same cinnamon-haired kid formed in his mind, with the Keyblade in his hands in a pointing motion.

Roxas blinked, and stepped back from the padlock. Was _this_ what it was like to go insane?

The Keyblade appeared in a flash of lights.

Well, if he could summon this...oversized metal _key_...maybe...maybe he wasn't going crazy. Maybe all of this had some convoluted but acceptable reason. Maybe he should stop talking with himself and open the stupid lock right _now_...

With a sweeping gesture he pointed the end of the Keyblade in the direction of the keyhole, and the recoil of the light that shot from its end was almost enough to knock him back. He kept his ground, however, and to his surprise, the lock just...evaporated into thin air. Not only the lock, but also the rusted chains, and the gate creaked with the grating sound of disuse as they swung inwards.

Brandishing the Keyblade, he ran towards the front door and never looked back.

- o -

Somewhere in the steel-plated basement of the Old Mansion, a lanky black-coated figure with a wild mane of crimson appeared. He smirked, and directed his expression at the ceiling.

- o -

_Light_.

Blindingly bright...wait. That wasn't light...it was just a whole lot of _white_.

Roxas blinked, and blinked some more, letting the silver Keyblade dissolve into sparkles as he gingerly pushed the double marble doors closed. He pressed the lock below the golden handle, and slowly turned around.

So that staring match with the window wasn't just a result of the heat...somehow, he had _really_ come here. Taking small steps, he walked around the long white table, brushing his fingers delicately against the drawings taped to the walls.

Stormy-blue eyes widened in recognition. He had seen these sketches before, in his mind's eye. That girl...Naminé...had shown him.

He continued on walking, staring around, until something made him stop. He did a double take, and retraced three steps. Roxas peered at the rather crude drawing of somebody -- a blonde -- running into --

_"Your mind's made up?"_

_Roxas paused, biting his lip. Hell yeah his mind was made up--there was nothing left for him here. A year -- a whole year had passed since he last saw Naminé. Axel was the only one who returned from the whole Oblivion mess. It obviously pained Axel to tell his best friend that Naminé was now under the protection of the realm of light...he could never touch her, as long as he kept his disposition as the Key of Destiny._

_But he'd find a way. He always does. And now he had caught wind of a challenge--a duel between him and another Wielder. Ha._

_Xemnas had explicitly forbidden him contact with these...Somebodies, but Roxas couldn't control himself. Between worrying for his Naminé's safety, and wondering why exactly the Organization felt the need to separate him from his Other...there wasn't a lot of self-control to go around._

_He currently had a lot of questions about his existence right now._

_"Why did the Keyblade choose me?" he said flatly. "I have to know."_

_Axel gritted his teeth audibly. "You can't turn on the Organization!"_

He staggered backwards, steadying himself by splaying both his hands on each side of the drawing. He shakily raised his eyes, and immediately dropped them. There was something about the sketch that made him feel immensely regretful--

_Oh Creator._

Axel.

**Axel.**

It hit him. Axel...somehow, the redhead was his best friend. Naminé was telling him the truth. Axel was -- wait. But...how did that happen? All he had was the recollection of seeing him in that place... and he mentioned something about --

"Organization XIII," he said aloud, touching the pencilled surface of the drawing gingerly. Roxas didn't need to turn around to know that somebody else was now in the White Room. He was far too used to the strange happenings and the random appearances that nothing really did frighten him now.

And that was what frightened him the most.

"...they're a bad group," he turned around, and looked straight at the flaxen-haired girl now sitting on the far end of the white table. He had the vaguest recollection of what Organization XIII was; it was like trying to grasp a live fish in water -- you think you have it in your hands, but when you raise it out of the water, it slips away.

Something in Naminé's cerulean blue eyes flickered before she answered. She turned her face away from his gaze as spoke softly. "Bad or good, I don't know. They're a group of..." she swallowed, and if Roxas wasn't mistaken, her voice cracked, "...incomplete people who wish to be whole. To that end, they're desperately searching for something."

"What?"

She said it slowly, almost reverently. "Kingdom Hearts."

Somehow he knew she was going to answer just that. The Superior had always tried one scheme or another in getting Kingdom H --

Wait.

The Superior?

Who -- ?

Roxas pillowed his head in his arms for a split second before raising his gaze to meet Naminé's. Something was really wrong here, but he was too tired to protest, too weary of surprises, too damn irritated of his missing memories. He surprised himself by chuckling wearily.

Naminé cocked her head sideways. "Funny?"

"It's just, I think..." Hell, he was too tired to think, "I've been running away from the question I really want to ask..."

The flaxen-haired girl squeaked slightly when he walked up towards her and leant on the table a feet away from her end. He leant forward. "What's going to happen to me now?" he asked honestly, a sort of sadness turning his question into something wistful, "Just tell me that. Nothing really matters anymore."

She hesitated visibly. "You are..."

Roxas' eyes widened; Naminé's figure suddenly froze and started to flicker. Panicked, he reached out one hand towards her. "Naminé!"

- o -

Something in the part of her chest that was supposed to be her heart seized painfully, and she screamed.

"You. Child. What are you _doing?_" DiZ spat, venom in every syllable of his question.

The pain in her chest had nothing to do with the surprise of the mummified man's hands clapping on her shoulder. It had something to do with the sad look on Roxas' face...the face, now illuminated on the computer monitor--

DiZ was muttering something about telling Riku to do something. He threw a brief glare at Naminé, rummaged for something in one of his bags, and suddenly pressed something into the back of her neck.

"What are--"

He was already halfway through uploading himself into the simulation.

She shrieked, and tried to upload herself in the same way. However, DiZ had pressed _something_...and the screen had locked. He had locked the system down.

Shaking her head vehemently, she pounded on the keys one last violent time before bursting into tears.

"_There's no knowledge that can change your fate,_" DiZ was saying, as she could see on the monitor above her head.

Roxas shook his head angrily, stormy-blue eyes darkening in intensity. "_Even if it doesn't, I wanna know. I have the right to know!_"

Naminé stared at the screen for three seconds, before sweeping out her hand to summon a portal.

"What the _he --_"

She blinked, whirled around, and swept out her hand once more.

Nothing.

Oh _Creator_ what the _hell_ was going on?

She stomped one foot in frustration, and tried to concentrate. Still nothing...how could she not use the Corridors? She was desperate. She had never portalled into the simulation directly before; if she died there, she _really_ died. Anything that happened to her there would really happen to her. That was why she always uploaded herself; the system failsafe guaranteed her nothing would happen to her true existence.

But she had to tell Roxas and she had to tell him _now_.

_"A Nobody doesn't have a right to know. Nor does it even have the right to be._"

Naminé tried again. And once more, she failed. _Oh what in all things holy is--_

Oh.

"_But what _is_ a Nobody?_" the blond boy cried out in frustration.

She raised a hand to the back of her neck, and her fingers ghosted over something vaguely metal. In her inspection she had pressed that something, and suddenly, three portals appeared, all in a neat line.

There was no question now; she _hated _DiZ.

"_DiZ, we're out of time!_" a hooded figure appeared, but she immediately recognized the voice as Ansem's. "_Too many Nobodies!_"

The Old Mansion in the real world was shaking as he spoke. Not only was Organization XIII storming the simulation, but the _real_ headquarters as well. Somehow they had figured out where they -- she, DiZ, and Riku -- were. And there was no doubt that if they were caught...there weren't going to be any negotiations.

She sprinted to the middle portal, and portalled inside the simulation. Roxas' eyes almost took up half of his face when he saw her appear behind a now-very irate DiZ. She resisted the urge to literally kick his ass.

"Roxas!" She said urgently, before DiZ could notice she was there. "Nobodies like us are only half a person. You won't disappear! You'll be _whole_!"

And with her words she sealed Roxas' fate.

She knew that she would help Sora.

Because it was the right thing to do, her mind told her. And since she lacked the faculty of emotion, there was no overruling that.

The blonde boy blinked, and stepped back. "I'll..." he said in a strained voice, "...disappear?"

DiZ had seemed to snap out of his surprised state, and he turned angrily to Naminé, advancing towards her. "No further outbursts!"

"_No_!" She repeated, making sure Roxas got the point, making sure he knew, at least, that he would be taken care of. "You _won't _disappear! You'll -- _mmf!_"

She realized that she should've portalled over into the other side of the room; DiZ had reached her easily and his gloved hand was now muffling her every word.

"Wait!" Roxas burst out in a panicked voice, one that made her nonexistent heart clench once more. She shot a glare at DiZ and concentrated, summoning another portal. If there's one thing a Nobody can boast about, it's the fact that he or she can never be caught in a trap; they can just ghost away into the Corridors of darkness for safety.

...unless a mummified _bastard_ stuck some kind of device to the back of your neck.

The button must've reset.

She struggled against DiZ as the blonde boy ran towards her, but he was deterred by Riku. No doubt that the silver-haired Keyblade Master wanted to get all of this done and over with as soon as possible; he wanted his best friend back. And if Roxas kept asking questions, that might never happen.

Her eyes widened. If Riku caught _her _--

She slumped fractionally against DiZ. Riku always, _always_ caught something. Somebody. Or Nobody, in her case. As long as it had something to do with their trinity. Sora, Riku, and _Kairi_.

Even in her head the name sounded bitter.

She took a deep breath, and bit hard on DiZ's hand. In the split second she had disarmed him, she used all of her strength -- _all of it_ -- to push his hand away. It was not surprising to hear something break with a dull _snap_.

"Roxas!" He looked at her with the panicked expression still on his face, "We will meet again. And then we can talk about everything." She hesitated, and bowed her head, her voice cracking once more. "I may not know it's you, and you may not know it's me..."

Riku's back stiffened.

"But we will meet again," she said with renewed confidence, having accepted her fate. "Someday soon. I _promise!_"

- o -

With those last words, it came rushing back. The chains binding his memories down broke. His memories of a certain memory witch...

His Other was the one who had uttered those words, at the End of The World, to the girl he loved --

How ironic that the girl _he_ loved would be the one who said it.


	15. Sixth Day: II

Hi. I'm numina-naminé, and I'll be your author for the next ten pages.

Kingdom Hearts doesn't belong to me.

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**Q **u** e **s** t **i** o **n** i **n** g **

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The**Sixth**_Day_ - **II**

_----------------------_

_Regret always comes at the end._

With those last words, it came rushing back. The chains binding his memories down broke. His memories of a certain memory witch...

His Other was the one who had uttered those words, at the End of The World, to the girl he loved --

How ironic that the girl _he_ loved would be the one who said it.

It took all of Roxas' self control not to go berserk on all of them. Naminé was a good fighter, but if he went all out, she would never survive the onslaught. He mentally screamed for her to portal out of his grasp, but as she smiled at him wanly, he knew at once something was off.

The flaxen-haired girl and DiZ started backing away into his portal, and the forlornly happy look on her face, as if she had surrendered, was enough to make him cry.

And Roxas only cries for two people.

"_Let her go!_" he roared, as the two disappeared. He turned angrily to Riku, but he only caught the remnants of his summoned portal.

"_Naminé_!"

And he was left alone in her White Room, so disturbingly similar to her own at the Castle That Never Was. The one that hadn't been used in over a year and a half.

A small star charm caught his eye, and his breath hitched; Oathkeeper was in his hands. His, no, _their -- _his and Naminé's -- Oathkeeper.

She had kept it all this time, subconsciously never letting him go.

Whirling around in anger and desperate confusion, he sprinted towards the double doors and wrenched them open, fighting back the tears. So here he was, having been in the presence of the girl he had been searching for and trying to save for _so_ long, and he had been powerless to do anything about it.

Roxas vaulted over the railing and landed easily on the decrepit ground floor, sending puffs of dust into the already dust-filled air and sending more than a few Nobodies to their nonexistent graves. He paused, and walked quickly into the door to his right, Keyblade crackling angrily in his fisted hand.

The room he had entered, he surmised was the Mansion Library, judging from the towering bookshelves full of ancient books lining the walls. A single winged statue sat at the head of the room, seemingly looking down at the floor.

Shaking his head, Roxas walked on, coming to a stop at the sole table at the middle of the room. It looked out of place. Why would anyone put only _one_ table in such a large library?

Inscribed on one edge of the mahogany table was a trinity of circles. One held a crossed heart -- the Heartless symbol -- , the other one a reverse heart -- the Nobody symbol --, and the last one remained blank.

He raised an eyebrow. He didn't need to ask to know that Riku was the one who made this lock.

A white crayon lay beside the candlestick on the table. Dismissing the Keyblade, he took it, and drew a crown, onto the circle atop the two others. The symbol of the Keyblade Masters. Of course, they would be the ones who would exterminate both.

A paradox. He himself was a Keyblade Master, so was he supposed to kill himself?

In all likeliness, he _was_.

He quickly leapt backwards as an outline of a smaller room flashed beneath his feet. Resting a hand on the statue, he watched as the floor disappeared. More Dusks appeared, but a few swipes of the Keyblade was more that enough to take care of them.

He took the stairs three at a time and skidded to a halt inside a room full of blinking machinery. Monitors full of somebody's statistics blinked, and something at the side...something that remotely looked like nothing he had ever seen before...

A sad, high-pitched whine filled his ears, and he fell to his knees in the excruciating pain of the oncoming headache --

_The meeting room at the Castle That Never Was --_

_The symbol of the Nobodies, _their_ symbol_

_Thirteen chairs, thirteen black-cloaked Nobodies and I am number Thirteen._

**flash**_Being chased by Dusks because I ran off, in the World that Never Was, amongst the dead buildings and the vanishing stars, under the pale light of Kingdom Hearts._

_I defeated him, my Other's best friend. His silver hair glinted in the light of our salvation, as I brought down my Keyblade on him._

_He defeated me back. I failed._

_And my memories were wiped out, and here I am, uploaded into some godforsaken simulation. Not only did I betray Organization XIII, but I failed in the reason of the betrayal in the first place._

_Oh Creator, what have I done?_

Roxas bit his lip, and steadied himself, his palms flat against the cold steel floor, watching the drops of saltwater puddle on his shadow.

Gritting his teeth, anger and hatred rose up in him, as he had never dared to remember to feel before. He doubted his Other felt such anger as this. Letting out a roar, he raised his hand and struck the machinery with the Kingdom Key -- his Other's -- over and over again until the defeated crackle of ruined technology and the dying sparks of electricity told him he couldn't do anything else.

Shaking his head to get it cleared, he stepped back and walked towards the nearest door, which had slid open the moment he stopped.

Nothing can stand in the way of him finding Naminé --

Screw that. How the _hell_ can he know where DiZ had taken her?

And besides...it struck him. Naminé could never remember who Roxas was...unless he merged back with Sora. Then his memories would be complete. Then the cerulean-eyed girl's memories would return.

Funny...he would never know that she remembered.

It was a sacrifice he was more than willing to make.

Swallowing painfully, he dismissed the Kingdom Key and collapsed on the swiveling computer chair, trying to process what he was about to do. Hypothetically, he was going to die for Naminé. Whatever Riku had said about meeting his other, he was going to disappear.

The flaxen-haired girl, he realized as he remembered his simulated days in Twilight Town, had done all that she could do to warn him. Even if her memories had flown away, she still cared for him. She wanted him to know what he was getting into.

At least...to have a moment's notice before he disappeared forever.

And to promise that they'll meet again.

He smiled. That was impossible, but coming from Naminé...it was all the motivation he needed.

Roxas slipped a hand under his polo and drew out a small notebook from the pocket within, as well as a pen. He had taken it with him because Olette had said something about working on the independent study today -- but now...

He had written on it his name, address, and all the things he knew about Twilight Town. Heck, he even had written the objectives for his day. Could be called his organizer, even. More of a journal, since he had stuck pictures and pieces of memory to the ruled pages.

Taking the pen, and turning to a clean page, he wrote two words, hoping that if he remerged, Sora would find this. And know his and Naminé's sacrifice.

- o -

He walked through the basement door. The moment he was completely inside the door slid shut, and Dusks accosted him from all sides.

Roxas knew whose Dusks _these_ were from, judging from the rather burnt-out look of the rubbery Nobodies.

He got it over with as fast as he could, and all he could do was wait. Wait for _him_ to come out, in his trademark steal-the-room's attention way. The lump in his throat refused to budge.

As the last Dusk vanished, a lanky figure cloaked in black walked in, clapping. Just like the first time he found Roxas in the simulation. "Simply _amazing_, Roxas."

He forced down the cry that threatened to rip itself from his throat. It made his nonexistent heart swell with joy, at the sound of one of his best friend's quotable quotes. He was here. The pyrokinetic really did search for him, tried to bring him back. And what had Roxas done in return? Lose his memories and hurt number Eight's nonexistent feelings in the worst way possible. "...Axel," he said in a voice devoid of emotion.

After all, that's what he really was, right?

"You really _do_ remember me this time?" the redhead said in a voice that betrayed the fact that Axel really hated Roxas' guts right now, "I'm _so FLATTERED_!"

Roxas blinked, and stepped back. Axel threw his head back, held out his hands, and the edges of the room burst into violent flames. When his gaze returned to Roxas, the blonde boy cringed at the sight of what looked like _tears_ sparkling in vivid teal eyes. "But you're too _late_!"

Betrayal really did hurt, didn't it?

He looked away, and called on the Keyblade. His own Keyblades. He wasn't Sora. If Axel wanted to take him down, he would fight with everything he's got, just like Axel would want it. Axel was the type to never back down from a challenge. It was the least he could do to pay back for leaving his best friend behind. Twice, if he survived this. He didn't think the pyro would ever forgive him if he remerged with Sora.

But if that was what it took to save Naminé...

Angelic Oathkeeper appeared in his right hand, and demonic Oblivion in his left. He crossed the Keyblades in front of his face before bringing them down into a ready position at his sides.

"Two?!" Axel said in surprise, before appearing to catch himself. He bowed his head and held his arms straight at his sides; his trademark chakrams whirled to life. Holding the fire wheels loosely in his gloved fingers, the pyromaniac smiled at Roxas.

It made his nonexistent heart clench in sadness.

"Come here," he said smoothly, even as Roxas charged. "I'll make it all stop."

He didn't miss the tears that sparkled in the fiery inferno; he didn't miss the stinging behind his eyes as he clashed weapons with his best friend.

Back in the Castle That Never Was, Roxas had never really sparred with Axel seriously. It had always devolved into some sort of play-fight that never failed to result into a very irritated Superior. He realized he had never known how hard Axel actually _fought_; he only had an inkling of the pyro's power from watching him spar with Larxene every single day.

He should've guessed.

Axel was really furious. That was a bad thing, especially since fire and anger isn't really a docile combination.

The pyro brought down his chakrams, and Roxas had to dodge a Fire Strike before charging forwards. However, Axel just dodged his moves and sent another Firaga at him.

Growling, he steadied Oblivion and drove it into the ground, leaping and using it as leverage to evade another ball of fire. Axel was caught unawares and was unable to dodge the Oathkeeper as Roxas brought it down. The pyro had to cross both chakrams to block the Keyblade, and was barely able to throw Roxas off.

Roxas flipped over and snatched the Oblivion from the burning rubble, before attacking again. Whatever he took, he was going to _win_.

- o -

Naminé ran. She ran for no apparent reason, since she knew Riku would catch her sooner than later, anyway. But still, her footsteps were light on Twilight Town's cobbled streets. She was too confused. Her resolve was weakening.

The look in Roxas' eyes...it was almost too much to bear.

But she _had _ to save Sora. She _had_ to; she had everything to do with the reason why the brunet was missing his memories, and it was her obligation to right her wrongs. Sora had saved her from herself, given her a reason to believe that she wasn't just a broken memory witch, given her a reason that she was Naminé. She was herself. Not Kairi.

Roxas had done nothing.

Or had he?

There was something -- something that she couldn't quite catch...

Raising a hand to the back of her neck, she gripped the circle of metal she found there and yanked, as hard as she could. She almost tripped over as an involuntary cry ripped itself from her throat; it felt like when she pulled, she had pulled half of her neck with it.

Her hand felt warm. And sticky. When she held it up to her face, it was crimson.

Her stomach lurched when she saw exactly how much flesh had been torn away. Amidst the bright red sat a blinking circle of steel. Somehow this little device had hampered her ability to portal.

Shivering in pain, she threw the small circle as hard as she could --

-- and hit the head of another Nobody.

_Oh no._

This one had the same rubbery body as the Dusks, but they moved with a certain grace. They all seemed to be female, for one. Almost like...

_Dancers_.

She blinked, and backed away in panic. These Nobodies started advancing on her, as if intent on catching her. Wait, screw that. They _were_ intent on catching her. She gave up on backing away and whirled around on her heels, and the moment she did so, the Nobodies sped up.

It seemed that it was some cosmic sign; the peach-clad Nobodies were chasing her back towards the Mansion.

It seemed that she was supposed to save Sora after all.

- o -

"_Firagun!_" Axel roared, throwing both flaming chakrams at Roxas, who had paused and gotten down on one knee to catch his breath. He looked up just in time to see the wheels of red and cast a counter-spell.

He crossed his Keyblades in front of him and yelled _"Reflect!_".

The chakrams rebounded, but the pyrokinetic caught them easily and slouched, preparing to throw another spell right at him.

Roxas was ready, however, and in the split second his guard had been let down, he sprinted forward and used the Oblivion to throw Axel into the air.

With a squeak of surprise the redhead barely managed to move his chakrams before Roxas started a barrage of blows. He used every ounce of strength he could draw on, both from the Light and Dark, from both Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Axel _was_ going down, whether he liked it or not. Actually, Roxas didn't like it either, but hey; life -- or nonlife, as the case may be -- was unfair.

Roxas finally leapt away, dodging a few breaths of fire as he did.

Axel collapsed on the ground, and the raging fire that filled the basement room disappeared.

Teal locked with stormy blue, and a lump formed in young Number Thirteen's throat.

_"You get on their bad side...they'll destroy you!"_

_He stomped his foot one last time--he had no time for this. He craned his neck up, and he could see Memory's Skyscraper. Tacky name, but served the purpose well. He was the youngest member--they'd move on if he failed. "No one would miss me," he said coldly, walking away from the redhead leaning against the brick wall._

_He felt his breath hitch as he caught Axel's last words. "That's not true...I would."_

He cried then, he didn't doubt it now. And right this instant, it was getting excruciatingly hard to hold back the tears. Roxas' voice cracked as he dismissed his Keyblades, as he said number Eight's name. "Axel..."

The pyrokinetic laughed, although it sounded a lot more like a pained wheeze (_Did I really hurt him that much?_)than a laugh. Axel propped himself up on his elbows as his chakrams started fading away into ribbons of black. "Let's meet again -- " he paused, and coughed; Roxas could see crimson on his lips, " -- in the next life."

All he wanted to do was run to his best friend and apologize over and over again, and tell him that he'll come back, but this was no movie, no scripted scene, no melodrama and the whole package. This was his nonlife, and this was his fate, the fate Roxas himself had decided. For Naminé, he was going to remerge. Axel knew that. He didn't need to say sorry, because Axel had already accepted it.

Axel looked at him expectantly, and Roxas nodded firmly, offering him a wan smile. If Nobodies could be reborn, well...he wished, with all his nonexistent heart, that Axel and Naminé would be there with him.

"Yeah." He swallowed. "I'll be waiting."

He watched with barely-held self-constraint as darkness started rising up from Axel in strings and ribbons. He was fading, and nothing, not even Kingdom Hearts, can stop that fateful process. Nothing, not even Roxas' tears, not even his apologies, not even his pleas, can stop Axel from fading.

He just killed his own best friend. Never mind. As Axel said, they _will_ meet again in the next life, right?

"Silly," Axel's voice faintly filtered through, with a supressed chuckle, "Just because _you_ have a next life..."

He faded.

Roxas' breath hitched, and he suddenly realized what the pyro was talking about --

-- he would be reborn, but merged with Sora. Axel...Axel would have nobody else to merge with.

He fell to his knees and let his tears fall, Oathkeeper and Oblivion fading into nothingness.

_Axel..._

- o -

It hurt.

Nobodies weren't supposed to feel hurt.

In fact, they weren't supposed to feel anything.

Then why, why in Creator's name did she feel so damn _guilty_?

Naminé bit her lip in frustration, underestimating her own strength and drawing blood as she did. The copper taste on her lips went unnoticed as she slipped through the shadows of the Mansion, trying to avoid the peach-clad Dancers that were hot on her trail. If she even as much summoned a strand of the Corridors, they would sense where she was, and she knew that it would all be over.

_Delaying the inevitable_, a voice rang out hollowly from the back of her head. _It would all be over anyway._

Roxas would vanish, and so would she.

It's the fate of a Nobody, as DiZ had so eloquently said.

She crept through the hallway and into the Library, down into the Computer Room, holding her breath as she did. Who knows where Riku and the once-great Ansem was; if she was going to metaphorically wipe Roxas off the face of the earth, she'd rather do it alone, thank you very much!

"--someone who can move about the realm of light and destroy Organization XIII."

"_Why?! Who are you?_"

Someone was sitting in front of Sora's monitors, speaking to a voice that she knew very well. Memorized by her nonexistent heart.

(Did she just think of that?)

She almost froze on the spot, but she immediately stole across the steel room, holping to the high heavens that DiZ would not notice her.

In fact, she observed, judging from the tone of voice the mummified man was using, he wouldn't have noticed if the mansion came crashing down around him. It was a tone that combined happiness, triumph, and satisfaction, and a tone that made her spine crawl. DiZ was happy, happy that he had finally gotten to Roxas, happy that his plans have finally worked.

What disturbed Naminé was the fact that even if she could've done something about it, she wouldn't.

She wouldn't change a thing.

The door to the Pod Room silently slid open, and her vision was temporarily overwhelmed by white.

This was her place in this world, and this was her choice. She was nothing but a memory witch, and Roxas was nothing but a piece of a broken soul, a piece that she had to get back, a piece of Sora's heart.

She couldn't help but notice the tightening feeling in her chest, just above where her heart should be.

- o -

That laugh. A condescending, superior, triumphant laugh.

"--And if I'm a servant," he continued, pausing for effect, "You should consider yourself a tool, at best."

It stung. DiZ had touched the very core of Roxas' existence with that one sentence. The charades of life that Organization XIII had so carefully instilled in him threatened to break. He was a Nobody, but he had a place in this world. Damn it, he had a purpose! Why would the Creator allow him to gain rational thought if he was only a _tool_, if he was only to be _used_!

(Like h.)

"Was that..." he started, breathing in deeply, a telltale stinging at the back of his eyelids. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

All the pain and frustration and longing and most of all _guilt_ (things that he shouldn't be feeling; in fact, he shouldn't be feeling at all) came rushing to the surface -- he killed his best friend, and had forgotten that he was to protect a certain _nobody_ -- and it all collected into a a smooth metal key, a key that coalesced into his waiting hands.

The Kingdom Key. Even _that_ wasn't his.

He snapped.

Letting out a scream of rage, he sprinted forwards and brought the Keyblade down, murder the only thing on his mind. He was a cold-blooded murderer as Number XIII, after all.

Stormy blue eyes widened in astonishment as he just went through, particles of data scattering and reassembling where he had supposedly cut DiZ into half.

"My apologies." He could almost hear a hint of laughter. "This is only a data-based projection."

He didn't wait for him to finish the sentence; Roxas charged again and again, slicing through the hologram, pouring out every ounce of his strength, knowing that he was doing something incredibly stupid but he just couldn't _stop_.

Finally the hologram vanished into threads of data, and coalesced behing him, back into DiZ's figure.

"Come, over here."

He whirled around, trying to catch his breath, eyebrows furrowed in anger. He stared back at the cloaked man with so much loathing that if looks could kill, Ansem would be dead. Even if it was only a projection.

How could such a callous persona exist? He was willing to sacrifice two existences for revenge.

(Two existences that wasn't really supposed to exist at all.)

"I _hate_ you so much..." he breathed furiously, not trusting himself to move and do something drastic. The Kingdom Key trembled in his hand. Or was it his hand that trembled?

"You should share some of that hatred with Sora," DiZ tilted his head in amusement, apparently remembering something. "He's far too nice for his own good."

At the sound of the name something inside Roxas leapt in recognition. At the same time, something inside him died. This Sora was the reason why he had left his family of Nobodies like him. This Sora was the reason why he had lost Naminé. Even if he was the Chosen One of some sort..._this_ was life, this wasn't some movie. He wasn't just a supporting character. He had his own existence...

(It isn't really yours.)

Swiping at his eyes, he ran and charged once again at DiZ's figure, unable to stop the hot tears that forced their way through the barrier of indifference he had built around himself.

He had no choice in the end, he thought, watching numbly as DiZ disappeared, and the capsule in the middle of the Pod Room blossomed open.

- o -

Naminé bit her lip and looked away, holding her shaking hand still in her other one. The lithe finger that had just pressed the key that had opened Sora's white marble cocoon was still trembling.

Hot tears stung at the edge of her eyes as she raised cerulean-blue orbs to the lone monitor that remained open.

It was the only link now between Roxas' simulation, and her real world.

The sterile white mechanical petals unfurled, and from the camera's view, Sora looked absolutely peaceful. Cinnamon locks floated in an invisible breeze, clothes small on his tan body, and hooded eyes hiding sky-blue irises.

His voice echoed in the Pod Room, as he tilted his head upwards to gaze at his counterpart.

"Sora..."

She bowed her head, unable to bite back the overflow of non-emotions. Crudely speaking, she was about to rid Roxas of all the freedom he had temporarily enjoyed. Somehow, it felt like the world was crashing down around her. Well, technically, it actually was, since the combined forces of the rubbery Dusks and the ruthless Slayers were trashing the mansion to pieces.

"You're lucky," Roxas sighed resignedly, dismissing the Keyblade in a forlorn spatter of lights. A wan smile curved his pouting lips, and stormy-blue eyes reflected surrender.

He had finally understood what he had to do.

Naminé couldn't stop crying as she started typing the upload sequence. She could already hear a portal being summoned open right behind her, and the soft rustling of coat against leather boot.

The blonde spiky-haired teen's shoulders slumped, and he took one last breath. Trembling fingers typed out the last few sets of keys.

"Looks like..."

Her finger hovered over the 'Enter' button.

"...my summer vacation's..."

She pressed it.

"...over."

And it all came crashing down, for when the monitor faded into white and her chain of memories around Sora's heart fell away, when Roxas' being merged with the brunet's, when all Sora's memories came rushing back, she remembered too.

She remembered everything.

But it was too late.

All she could do was scream out his name and let her tears fall.

"_ROXAS!_"

And from somewhere in the blinking machinery mounted above the now-dead monitor, a computerized female voice beeped out happily.

"_**Restoration complete**._"

"I finally caught you," a voice whispered quietly into her ear, and she felt what color that had been left in her face drain away. "...Naminé."

A flash of metal, and everything went black.

- o -

Altogether now: say 'awww...'

Erk. Reviews are much appreciated.

**Soaring on Broken Wings** will be updated soon.


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